Ghosts of the Past
by SaucyHandles
Summary: After having something precious taken from him, Naruto will scorch the earth trying to get it back.
1. Welcome To Roanapur

**AN: Well, I've been wanting to write a Black Lagoon/Naruto crossover for awhile now, and I'm confident enough to finally try. So without further adue, I give you the first chapter!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Black Lagoon.**

* * *

**Ghosts of the Past**

**-Chapter one-**

* * *

A man sat leaned against a cold brick wall in a damp alley way, illuminated by the dim flickering light of an orange streetlight from the nearby road. He was a middle aged man with short black hair, worn clothes and a empty look in his eyes...

But this man is not important, as the man was dead. No the person of interest here was the figure that approached the body. In the flickering light, the figure became visible, showing that the figure was wearing white surgeons garb, a face mask and goggles and was carrying a large chainsaw.

Upon reaching the corpse the figure sat and examined the body for a bit, the body seemed to be completely disemboweled, with scorch marks covering around the area that used to be the corpses stomach, another apparent tally to be added to the list of corpses that have been showing up as of late with strange wounds.

With that, the figure started its chainsaw, revving the engine to warm it up. The figure proceeded to hack away at the body, severing limbs with an odd precision for the tool being used. After finishing, the figure threw the chunks of the corpse into the back of a van labeled "U.G. Pork". Closing the rear doors, they climbed in and started the van seemingly uncaring that they were covered in blood and tiny bits of flesh.

Unknown to the figure now driving away in the van, another figure sat perched upon the ledge of a nearby building, overlooking the alleyway down below. In the brief flickers of orange light that were cast up from the streetlamp below, the figure could be seen wearing a red duster-styled trench coat that went down to their shins, long black leather pants, and arm length black leather gloves. The figures face wasn't visible due to the porcelain fox mask they wore, but sitting atop their head was a mess of spiky blond hair that hung down slightly over the edges of the mask.

Once the van was out of sight, the nighttime air began to swirl around the cloaked figure, before compressing inward in a distortion of black and red that soon vanished, leaving behind only an empty rooftop.

* * *

The Yellow Flag was one of the better known bars on the lawless island city of Roanapur. It had gained its fame through the many large-scale gunfights that had taken place inside it. Currently sitting at one of the tables near the wall were the members of Lagoon Company.

"Hey Dutch! when are we gonna get a job? I'm sick of just sitting around!" a plum haired woman said in frustration as she sat leaning forward on the table, a glass in her hand, and an annoyed expression on her face. Across from her, a bald African-American man with large muscles let out an annoyed sigh as he looked up at her through his ever present sunglasses.

"Not until we can get the Lagoon fixed," the large man said. "The engines are still damaged from our last job." he finished, a small amount of frustration lacing his voice. The plum haired woman let out an annoyed grunt before turning to her right.

"You up for another drinking contest Rock?" she asked, directing the question at a young man dressed in business attire that was sitting next to her. "I need _some_ form of excitement, or I'll go fucking insane!" she finished, throwing her head back and tilting back in her chair.

The newly revealed Rock simply gave a nervous chuckle as he looked up at the plum-haired woman apologetically. "Heh, sorry Revy, not tonight," he spoke, putting his arms up in a placating manner. "I have to go over our finances tomorrow and it's easier to do without a hangover." he explained, hoping not to annoy the irritable gunman.

The plum-haired woman known as Revy let out another annoyed grunt at having nothing to do. "Ugh, well something exciting better happen soon, my trigger fingers getting twitchy." she said, leaning back In her chair with her head tilted, casting her gaze behind her.

"Heh, with our luck and a statement like that, next thing you know well have to deal with another Roberta..." came the joking remark from Benny, the crews electronics specialist and resident hacker, receiving a shaking of the head from Dutch, and a nervous chuckle from Rock.

Just after the words came out of his mouth, the door to the bar opened, letting an odd looking man dressed in a red trench-coat enter.

* * *

A swirling distortion appeared within a deserted alley-way; red and black bleeding from within it's spiraling center before quickly taking on the shape of a man. As soon as the image of the man appeared to stabilize and become solid, the swirling distortion vanished, leaving behind only the figure clad in red.

Standing still for a moment, the figure gazed around the empty alley. Satisfied that he was alone, the figure reached a hand up and removed the porcelain fox mask from his face. Upon the mask's removal the figure's features became visible, revealing a set of piercing blue eyes along with an angular face scarred with three matching lines on each cheek, resembling the whiskers of an animal.

The figure smoothly put the mask within the confines of his coat, followed by the removal of a pair of rather unique, reflective, round-lensed glasses with zig-zagged temples.***(1)**

Gazing down, the figure gazed into a puddle nearby. Giving a nod at their reflection, the figure began walking towards the exit of the alley. The figure had only walked a short while before coming across the bright neon sign of the Yellow Flag. Without a word they opened the door and stepped through.

* * *

Upon the sound of the door opening, many eyes turned towards the front of the bar, inspecting the new arrival before simply turning back to what they were doing. Benny gave a nervous chuckle, seeing as the joke he'd just made wasn't exactly something he wanted coming true.

"Heh, what do you guys think of him? Dressed kinda odd huh?" Revy asked, a feral grin stretched across her face. The other three examined the new arrival with calculative gazes before sharing a look.

"I think we should go." came the short reply from Dutch, as he watched the figure walk up to the front of the bar. Revy looked back down, dropping her chair into a regular sitting position before looking at Dutch with an annoyed expression.

"Huh? Why?" Revy asked, looking at the nervous faces of Benny and Rock, while Dutch kept an impassive expression on his face. "What the hell's wrong with you guys?" she questioned after a brief moment of silence.

Rock looked from the new arrival back to Revy. "Uhm Revy, when was the last time an unknown face showed up here dressed strange and nothing bad happened?" he asked her nervously.

Revy looked back at the stranger that was now sitting at the bar. "Yeah, I guess you got a point," she said plainly, never taking her eyes off the man in red. "Well, I'm gonna go talk to him. The way I see it, either he's a normal guy, or I'll get to shoot someone." she finished, her grin returning once more. Benny and Rock looked on in despair while Dutch chose to simply give a shake of his head.

* * *

As he sat at the bar drinking a glass of Wild Turkey Bourbon, the figure listened in on a few of the conversations going on throughout the place. Most of the conversations consisted of people discussing 'the new guy in the red coat'; mostly people making bets on how long it would be before he was killed in Roanapur. He smiled at the thought of the lowly thug in the alley trying to muscle him over, and their consequent death.

He was about to get up and leave, seeing as he hadn't heard anything of interest being spoken, when a rather feral looking woman jumped onto the stool next to him. 'Revy' he believed her name was from the conversation he had heard.

"Hey Bao! I'll have what he's having!" she shouted at the man behind the bar, who simply gave her the middle finger before filling her a glass. Upon receiving her drink a second later, she turned her attention towards him. "So what's up with you? I take it you're new to Roanapur?" she casually asked as she leaned on the bar.

Looking to his left at the strange woman, the blonde-haired man gave a simple, "Yeah." before looking back at his drink, seemingly uninterested in conversation.

Revy narrowed her eyes at the man that had practically ignored her.

"You got a name asshole?" she asked, her anger beginning to surface as she placed a hang on one of her modified Beretta 92FS's. The man didn't even look up from his glass as he spoke.

"Naruto." came a simple reply once again, much to the ire of Revy.

"Well _Naruto_," she spoke mockingly. "What brings you to Roanapur?" Revy asked, anger still present in her voice. Normally she would just put a bullet in the asshole's head and be done with it, but seeing as she had nothing better to do, she figured she would at least try to have a normal conversation. The stranger now identified as Naruto let out a sigh before he looked up from his glass.

"I'm... searching for someone..." he said cryptically, gaining a confused look from Revy, before he abruptly stood from his stool and headed towards the door. Before he could make it to the exit however, he heard a shout from come from behind him.

"Hold it asshole!" Revy said through clenched teeth, as she held one of her cutlasses aimed at the back of his head. "Don't just fucking ignore me! Here I am trying to be polite to someone for once, and you just walk away? Maybe you don't know this, but I'm not someone you want to piss off, and right now? I'm pretty fucking pissed off!"

By now, nearly the entire bar was watching the scene unfold with bated breath. Many of the common patrons knew Revy's reputation, as some had actually seen her blow a persons brains onto the floor. Usually they had been simple drunks that had made the mistake of confusing her with one of the many prostitutes that worked out of the upstairs portion of the bar.

Looking over his shoulder at the angered gunman, Naruto spoke in a calm voice, "It wasn't my intention to anger you, I simply have other things I must do." Revy didn't bother to lower her gun.

"Yeah? Well you're a little too late, give me one reason I shouldn't just blow your brains out?" she asked, blood-lust slipping into her voice. Naruto continued to look at her from over his shoulder without emotion.

"I'm only here for one reason, to find someone important to me. If you get in my way... I'll have to kill you," he said, eyes narrowing through the reflective lenses of his glasses at the woman still sitting at the bar, pointing the gun at his head. "Besides, I'm not the only one with a gun aimed at their head." he continued.

Revy looked confused at his statement, the same as those watching the scene unfold, before a near silent click was heard and a red dot appeared on Revy's forehead. Tracing the laser back to its origin, she found the barrel of a gun pointed at her from between his right arm and his body. Gritting her teeth she spoke, her words like venom.

"Just who the hell are you?!" she said through grit teeth, the muscles in her arm tensing, preparing to pull the trigger.

"...Me? No one overly special, I'm just a man looking to reclaim something that has been taken from him..." he spoke calmly. That didn't seem to please the angered woman much as he noticed her face become even more angered as her muscles appeared to tense further.

Just as it seemed like the situation was going to reach its boiling point a new voice suddenly spoke up.

"N-now h-hold on you two!" came the nervous voice of a frantic Rock. "Just settle down! There's no need to kill each other!" he said trying his best to diffuse the situation.

"I must agree with the young man, I feel there's no reason for this conflict, but I'm afraid if you don't put your gun down I'll have to kill you." Naruto spoke, turning his head slightly to look over his shoulder better at the woman behind him.

Seeing the strange man that had managed to anger the plum-haired gunman seemingly agree to the impromptu peace treaty, Rock turned his attention towards the severely pissed off Revy.

"Come on Revy! Just lower your gun, and we can all go home!" Rock pleaded, hoping with all his might that the situation would end before it truly began.

Revy remained silent and unmoving for a moment before she glanced toward him slightly. "Are you fucking stupid Rock? Maybe you just haven't been here long enough, but in a place like this you can _never_ trust another person based solely off their words... that'll usually bring nothing but your own death..."

Seeing his attempt apparently fail, Rock spoke up once more, hoping at the very least to at least stall for time to think. "I get that Revy, I do! But that man there isn't the one that started this, and he's already agreed that there's no point in this ordeal! It'd be for the best if you _both_ just lowered your guns and go your separate ways!" Rock finished, hoping the duo would listen to reason.

Anxiety growing with each second as a long moment passed with nothing happening, Rock was about to speak up once more but was cut off by a loud exhale. "Ugh, fine Rock, way to be a buzz kill. Oh, and if this asshole shoots me anyways I'm going to kill you." she said releasing a long breath as she eyed the man that was still standing in the middle of the bar, gazing at her over his shoulder, before she slowly lowered her cutlass. A short second later the man lowered his as well.

"Thank you." Naruto said, before he walked out the door.

Rock let a sigh of relief escape from his mouth see as the situation was apparently resolved, before he sunk into his chair once more.

Revy watched the door close as the man left before she let out a huff and headed back over to the table the others were still sitting at. She had just sat down when a shout was yelled from the front of the bar.

"If you keep causing trouble in my bar Revy, I'm gonna have to ban your ass!" came the shout from owner of the bar, Bao.

"Yeah yeah, whatever..." Revy mumbled as she crossed her arms. The other members of Lagoon Company let out a breath of relief seeing as the situation had finally been resolved.

"I...can honestly say I'm surprised by the lack of dead bodies in here." Benny stated, receiving a nod of agreement from Dutch.

"Yeah, well we probably just cashed in all our luck, so can't say I'm eager to see what's gonna go wrong next," Dutch stated before picking up his glass of Bacardi. "Well regardless, I'm still thankful I can actually finish my drink this time."

* * *

Naruto was aimlessly walking down the street as he thought back towards the woman he had just encountered. He had a feeling they would be seeing each other again eventually, but for now he needed to continue his search. As he turned into yet a other dark alley, he whistled a somber tune, he'd make sure to find what he was looking for, and if he couldn't...

He'd burn the entire city to the ground until he found where to search next...

* * *

**Chapter end**

**(1) I basically modeled his outfit to be Vash the Stampedes look. I think it's a kick-ass look.**

**Well I really hope I get positive reviews for this, because it's always nice to have support, even if it's just a few people! Every positive review or helpful criticism helps me out!**

**Please inform me if there are any problems with the story, it'd really help as I don't have a beta-reader.**

**Okay since I've gotten a negative review about it and have read reviews in other stories that deal with Black Lagoon, I feel it needs to be addressed. In this story, Naruto will use a gun AND Jutsu. I have him use the gun because he can't just break out a Jutsu in a crowded place and have the story still bear any realism. I mean you can't shatter reality for the world and still have a story. He will still use Jutsu periodically when it's safe to do so but usually he'll be stealthy about it.**

**7-18-2015 I've begun rewriting what I have already written to be a little bit neater, and to fit together a little better.**

**Just as a reference, this chapter take place immediately after "Calm Down, Two Men".**

**PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK! IT'LL REALLY REALLY HELP ME OUT!**


	2. The Vampire Twins Comen

**AN: well I'm happy that people are actually reading this story, I hope this second chapter makes up for the extremely long wait.**

* * *

**Ghosts of the Past**

**-Chapter two-**

* * *

Dark grey covered the morning sky as a calm rain descended upon the city of Roanapur; the still rising sun blotted out by the opaque clouds hovering overhead. Sitting on the outer ledge of an overly large fountain was Naruto, head tilted back as he watched the dark clouds slowly moving above. A small smile shown on his face as he felt the cool beads of liquid streaking down his scarred cheeks.

As Naruto sat enjoying the rain, he couldn't help but to think about when he was still a little kid living on the streets. Back then the rain used to make him so miserable; back when he had no choice but to freeze out in the cold, having no home or family to return to. He absolutely hated the rain when he was little, it always felt like it was mocking him, but ever since he had become a sage he found the rain to be poetic in a sense. Upon becoming a sage, his connection to nature had changed his views of the rain. No longer did he see it as a symbol of sorrow and misery, as it was with Nagato, but as a symbol of new life and hope. Without rain, there would be no life.

Shaking his head to rid him self of the philosophical thoughts that were starting to plague his mind, Naruto looked back down to examine his surroundings. The park he found himself in was a breath of fresh air, both figurative and literally. It didn't contain much, its basic anatomy consisting of a rather giant, circular-stone fountain, with a large portion of the surrounding ground bricked in a matching circular fashion around the fountain. Dense bushes sat underneath the wall of trees that wrapped around the park, mostly hiding the nearby buildings from view, with just the peaks of some of the taller buildings jutting above the treeline off in the distance.

"There's no sense trying to hide from me, the both of you might as well come out now." Naruto spoke out in a calm voice, seemingly to no one. A moment later two small figures stepped out from behind the treeline directly ahead from Naruto.

As they stepped out from the shadows, he took note that it was a pair of small twins, a girl and a boy. They both had silver hair, blue eyes, pale skin and seemed to be the same height. Both of them wore black and white, gothic attire. The little girl had long, waist-length hair, wore a gothic Lolita gown and seemed to be carrying a long wrapped item in her arms, while the young boy beside her had short hair and wore a black trench coat with a dress shirt and a bow tie, black shorts and boots.

"He knew we were here sora mea, his instincts must be pretty good." spoke the silver-haired boy, looking at the young girl next to him with a smile. "We'll live so much longer after we kill him." he finished, his smile turning feral, exposing his sharp canines.

"Indeed we will, fratele meu." the girl responded smiling at the boy before turning her attention towards the man sitting on the fountain ledge. "Mister, I'm really sorry but we have to kill you now!" she spoke in an overly cheerful voice, before she threw the wrapping off the long bundle in her arms, revealing a Browning BAR 1918 A2.

"Are you going to kill him quickly sora mea? Or can I play with him?" the silver-haired boy asked. "I'd very much like to play with him!" he said cheerfully, his creepy smile still covering his face.

The young girl turned back towards her apparent brother, "Sure fratele meu, I'll just wait for my turn." she spoke as her brother took out a pair of black battle axes from his coat.

Barking laughter brought their attention to the laughing man in front of them.

"Bwuahaha! Honestly brats? You have no idea how funny the notion of you killing me is!" Naruto said, wiping a tear from his eye. "And this whole living longer after killing me thing seems rather intriguing, would you care to explain why you believe that so?"

Standing up from his seated position Naruto stood at a good 6'5", his red trench coat billowing in the wind. Looking across at the creepy twins he closed his eyes and smiled. "I honestly don't know why you two wish to kill me, but don't dare think I won't fight back!" he said snapping his eyes open, revealing that his once brilliant blue eyes were now blood red with three stylized-tomoe in each eye.

The shock was evident from the widening of the twins eyes as they gazed into the strange mans eyes.

"I think we should just kill this man quick fratele meu... he's weird." the girl spoke, her smile having left her face, before she hefted the large gun in her arms and aimed it at the now red eyed man.

"I suppose you're right." the boy responded, his eyes narrowed.

"You two really shouldn't say such things about someone you don't even know." Naruto spoke, a smirk firmly plastered on his face.

The twins tensed seeing the man reach an arm into his coat, but that tension turned to confusion when he removed a simple, if odd looking knife. Kunai in hand, Naruto gazed across to his apparent opponents.

"Let us begin, shall we?"

The twins appeared to be shaken back to reality upon hearing his words as the girl immediately began firing upon him. The loud cracks of each round being propelled out the barrel acting as the soundtrack to the beginning of the battle.

Face slipping into an emotionless mask, Naruto began directing wind chakra into the blade of his kunai, coating it with an invisible wind blade. With the aid of his sharingan, he quickly began deflecting the bullets that came near him. He'd have to admit, the eyes only became more and more useful as time progressed and weaponry advanced. He wouldn't consider bullets much harder to deflect than a kunai thrown by an enemy ninja, but the sheer amount and rate that they could be shot at you were staggering.

A few seconds passed as Naruto deflected bullet after bullet before a click was heard, signaling that she had run out of ammo in her clip. The bit of dust kicked up from bullets breaking the stone ground apart cleared and revealed a completely untouched Naruto standing in front of a utterly destroyed fountain, water flowing freely onto the surrounding ground.

The silver-haired girl's eyes widened significantly upon seeing her target alive, instead of laying upon the ground in a puddle of blood. "There's no way I missed! You should be dead mister!" she said loudly in complete confusion, before her face scrunched up trying to figure out how he'd survived. "Why aren't you dead?" she asked innocently, truly puzzled.

Naruto sighed, "Well there are actually multiple answers to that question in-particular, first being I'm awesome, the second answer is something I might think about telling you when this is over. Now, why don't you tell me why you're trying to kill me, ne?" Naruto asked with a polite smile.

Naruto's attention was drawn to the boy that had been quiet the last few minutes when he'd suddenly started giggling. Soon even the girl was giggling too and it was honestly creeping him out a little.

"Heh hehe! Why? Did you just ask why?" the boy asked before he began giggling again, "You're joking right? You sure are an odd one mister." the boy said before his sister spoke up through her own giggles.

"Hahaha! Because we want to! There's no other reason we kill! We're doing it because _We. Want. To._" she said, her laughter dying out. She then raised her gun back up and ejected the clip. The moment the clip touched the ground the boy took off towards Naruto, axes held firmly in both hands.

_'Well, they appear to be at least a little organized'_ Naruto thought to himself as the boy charged him, right arm raised to bring down one of his axes into his neck. Observing the boy as he charged him, he couldn't help but to notice that the boy obviously held no true fighting style.

With a disappointed sigh, Naruto raised his left arm up to meet the boys wild strike, catching the handle of the axe just below the axe head. Naruto smirked after seeing the boys eyes widen, his surprise obvious, before the boy's gaze hardened and he quickly brought the other axe forward, aiming to take out Naruto's knee. Quickly using the kunai still gripped in his right hand to block the strike, Naruto stared at the boy impassively.

"It's pretty obvious to me that you've never fought anyone proficient in close-range combat before, have you?" the gritting of the other boys teeth was all the answer he needed. "I must say, I'm rather disappointed. I figured you'd at least know how to use those properly since you bothered to attack me with them..." Naruto said, shaking his head.

"Fratele meu!" casting his gaze behind the boy, Naruto seen the angered look in the sister's eyes as she leveled her newly reloaded gun forward, ready to unload the next clip at him.

_'So they're protective over each other? She's not even going to take the chance that he'll die fighting me'_ Naruto thought to himself.

Seeing the boy tense to jump away, Naruto quickly snapped his right leg forward, striking the boys forward knee, causing the boys leg to collapse and him to drop to said knee, losing his grip on the axe parried with Naruto's kunai to catch himself. With his now free hand, Naruto quickly lashed out with the handle of his kunai, striking the boys wrist, causing him to loosen his hold on the other axe before he gave a quick tug, causing the axe to fly from the boys hand and land near the broken fountain.

"Can't have you jumping away, now can we?" Naruto said calmly, before lashing out with his leg, kicking the boy hard enough in the stomach to raise him from the earth a few feet. Blood flew from the boys lips as he reached his apex of his flight, before he felt tremendous pain in both his shoulders, having received two quick and precise strikes to pressure points in both his arms. Still hovering in front of Naruto, due to the force of his kick and the speed of his strikes, the boy was caught by his trench coat before being twisted around and held close, both arms forced behind his small body, like a miniature meat shield.

"Now, which of you two want to tell me the _real_ reason you're both trying to kill me?" Naruto spoke in a deadly calm voice, coupled with a tiny dose of killing intent, while holding his kunai to the boys throat.

"Fratele meu!" yelled the wide eyed girl, as she unconsciously shook. "Put him down!" she ordered, all traces of her former bloodlust gone, in it's place stood a frightened little girl, unsure of what to do. A pained gasp came from the boys lips as Naruto tugged his arms up behind his back farther, forcing the boys shoulders to the brink of dislocating.

"Tell me why you're both after my life and I'll let your brother live. Don't, and I'll slit his throat. You have your options." A tense moment passed as the girl seemed at war with herself, before to prove his point, Naruto put a little more pressure to the boys throat, earning a pained grimace from said boy and drawing a thin line of blood. The sight of the blood running down her brothers neck seemed to shatter any remaining bit of resolve the girl still held.

"Mr. Verrocchio hired us! He said we were to hunt down and kill the man responsible for the murders of a bunch of his men! All we were told was what they looked like, and how they killed!" she all but blurted out, unshed tears lining her eyes. "Now let him go!"

_'Yeah I figured as much, though him hiring _children_ to kill me was rather unexpected. Still, that means that these two can take me to the man himself.'_ Naruto thought tiredly, seeing the trembling girl in front of him. Naruto let go of the boys arms, earning a look of relief from the girl, before he quickly struck forth, hitting the boy in the back of the neck and rendering him unconscious.

"Fratele meu!" she screamed, starting to run towards her fallen brother, but before she could make it more than a few feet, she was struck from behind, rendering her unconscious in the same manner as her brother. Naruto received a nod from the shadow clone that had launched itself from the tree-line and knocked the girl unconscious before it disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Looking at the downs forms of the twins, Naruto released a heavy sigh, hearing the faint sounds of police sirens growing louder.

_'Well, I can't just leave them here.'_ Naruto thought to himself, silently creating a single shadow clone to collect their weapons before he himself picked up the siblings and they disappeared, seemingly being sucked into a vortex coming from Naruto's right eye.

* * *

"Dutch, have you heard the news?" Revy questioned, walking through the door of the Lagoon company office. The office itself wasn't overly large, only about big enough for the four members of lagoon company to comfortably lounge in, with a few bedrooms adjoined to the main room. It was furnished with a few couches faced towards each other, with a coffee table in between. On one end of the table sat a single love seat, currently occupied by Dutch.

"If you're talking about what I'm thinking of, then yeah, somebody in towns got a death wish." Dutch replied, before taking a sip of his beer.

"Yeah no kiddin', to go and pick a fight with them like that? Gotta be either suicidal or just plain retarded."

"What news?" came the voice of rock, having entered the room the same time as Revy.

"What the fuck? You seriously haven't heard anything about this?" Revy asked, walking over to one of the couches before sitting down. "There's been a bunch of murders." Revy answered, kicking her feet up on the table.

"Not to sound callous, but homicides aren't unusual in this city." Rock said, taking a seat across from Revy.

"Yeah I know murder isn't exactly front page news, but when they're targeting one of the major powers in the city, its a different story. Anyways, they've found six bodies, all with ties to the Verrocchio family, and that's just in the last two weeks." Revy explained.

"I don't get it, who's the Verrocchio family?" Rock asked, voicing his confusion.

"For fuck sake Rock! You've been here how long now?!" Revy asked in annoyance, before sighing. "Look, the Verrocchio family are the branch of the Sicilian Mafia that are currently calling Roanapur home. They are one of the three major powers of our fine city, right behind Hotel Moscow and the Hong Kong Triads. You get it now?"

"Yeah, I guess I see how that's bad, so who's picking the fight then?"

"No one knows, and that's the thing; they're out for blood, yet have no one to pin the blame on. Though, it's no secret that the Verrocchio family and Hotel Moscow aren't exactly the best of fucking friends."

"Revy, you know that's not Ms. Balalaika's style. If it were Hotel Moscow, the whole city would be a war-zone. She'd never just kill a few grunts, she'd entirely wipe them off the face of the earth." Dutch said, choosing to cut in.

Revy shrugged her shoulders, "In any case it means some asshole's trying to pour gas on an open flame, and you can be sure that in this city, where the balance of power walks a tightrope on its fucking hands, we'll all be knee deep in blood before this all ends."

"Anyways, now that story time is over," Dutch said with a grin, "I need one of you to go tell Benny to get ready, we still have a meeting with Ms. Balalaika to attend."

* * *

Naruto sat at a small circular table in one of the rooms of the Ramsap Inn. The room was rather small, as most of the room was taken up by a pair of twin-sized beds that sat parallel to each other. Currently both beds were being occupied by either of the unconscious twins he had brought with him.

As he waited patiently for the duo to wake, he fiddled with the pair of snub-nosed revolvers he'd taken off the 'boy'. That came as a small shock when he'd been searching the duo for hidden weapons; as boys shouldn't have developing breasts. He hadn't gone far enough as to check her downstairs, as that would be fucked up, but still, accidentally groping her breasts when he was patting what he assumed to be a boy down was all the evidence he needed. Though, now he was questioning why she was pretending to be a boy.

Before he could delve too deep into that train of thought, he noticed that the girl, or at least the one dressed as a girl, was beginning to stir. Deciding to simply watch how she'd react to the situation, Naruto did just that. He watched as she slowly awoke, blinking the grogginess away as she went to stretch before her eyes shot wide open in a panic when she noticed that she was currently bound by rope; her elbows and wrists were tied together behind her back and connected to rope binding her ankles together with her wrists.

Naruto decided to make himself known when she started thrashing around violently, trying to free herself. He shook his head in disappointment, seeing as she wasn't able to escape her bonds. Really, why the hell were these two the ones sent to kill him? Probably in the hopes the fact they were children would catch him off guard, which it honestly had, but here he was still breathing and now he had a key to his revenge.

"Knock it off gaki, you'll only hurt yourself struggling like that." The girl immediately froze, clearly surprised by the new voice in the room. Her eyes quickly focused on his silhouetted form, barely being illuminated by the dim morning light flowing through the window.

"It's you again mister," she spoke, her panicked face slipping into a feral grin, "I guess you're just like everyone else then... a liar."

"Oh? And how is it that I am a liar?" he asked, still seated at the table in the center of the room.

"You said you'd let us go if we gave you the information we had."

Naruto smiled, "Ah, If you remember I only agreed to let your brother live, I never truly agreed to actually let the two of you leave. It really only goes to show how naive a child you still are to assume that just because you get to live another day that you'd also get to just walk away. Really nothing was stopping me from simply killing you both the moment I got the information from you."

A pregnant pause went by as no response was given, before the silence was finally broken.

"It doesn't matter, I'm going to kill you mister, that's how it always goes. It's always us left living, surrounded by the scent of flowing life... of rust and salt water," she spoke, her eyes taking on an insane gleam, "The scent of imminent death."

Naruto shook his head, "Really? I suppose that worked out well for the two of you the last time you tried, didn't it?" he asked, voice heavy with sarcasm. "Regardless, you're _far_ from being in a position to make such threats. If anyone was going to die in this room, it'd be the two of you, so do try to be mindful of that one glaring fact."

Naruto was surprised when she began giggling. Really how was dying funny?

"Heh hehe, you really are funny mister, we can't die we've killed so many there's no way we can die now, we'll live forever! We'll always be together!" she spoke, eyes radiating an insane happiness.

"You truly are foolish," Naruto said, shaking his head at how broken she seemed to be, "I know you don't really believe that, do you? No... of course not. Deep down you know you can still die, and I know it must terrify you. Earlier when I was holding your 'brothers' life in my hands, that fear was obvious. Maybe you don't hold any fear of dying you yourself, but I know for a fact the last thing you would ever risk is watching the one closest to you die..."

To further prove his point, Naruto picked up one of the snub-nosed revolvers off the table before walking over towards the still unconscious twin. The girl's face remained stoic as her gaze followed his movements, but he could still see the panic in her eyes grow with every step he took. Leveling the barrel towards the boy's temple, Naruto spoke in a deadly calm voice. "Tell me you truly believe what you said is true," he spoke in a dead voice, before pulling back the hammer, "Because we can easily test your claims authenticity..."

A moment of tense silence passed before he spoke up once more.

"Speak up now, girl!" he spoke a little louder, "Tell me you honest to Kami believe he'll live if I put this bullet through his skull!" he yelled at her shivering form, before like a dam breaking, her resolve shattered completely.

"No!" she screamed with a trembling voice, tears flowing freely from her eyes, "Please don't kill him!" at this point she was bawling as she stared through tear soaked eyes at the man holding the gun to her brother's head.

Naruto didn't move for a second, as he stared dangerously at the quivering girl, before he quickly pulled the gun away from the boy's temple. He stared at her for a few seconds more before calmly walking back to the table and sitting down.

"You'll live a lot longer the sooner you let go of the illusion that you've cast for yourselves, and begin to see the reality of everything around you."

The room remained silent, except for the sounds of the girl crying on her bed as Naruto sat staring at the gun in his hand before he looked up when a new voice made itself known.

"S-sora mea? What's going on?" looking up he noticed that the boy had finally woke up. What stood out though was the feminine voice that came from his mouth. "Why are you crying?" he asked in confusion before he noticed that she was tied up. Before he could voice his concerns he was cut of by her shout.

"Fratete meu!" She yelled, her tear soaked face launching into a large smile.

"Oh, I see you're finally awake." startled, the boy snapped his head towards the new voice, before his eyes immediately narrowed and a completely feral look of anger covered his face.

"What did you do to my sister?!" he shouted in rage.

Taking note that his voice had switched over the the more masculine voice he recognized from earlier, Naruto raised his hands in a placating manor, "Relax, I didn't do a thing to her, I simply helped her come to a realization." he said hoping to calm the supposed boy's anger.

"Lair!" he shouted defiantly, "You're probably just like the other men that used to tie us up! Now what the hell did you do to my sister?! I'll kill you if you did anything to her!"

Naruto took a moment to calm himself so he wouldn't hurt the screaming child. "Look, I ain't no damn kiddie diddler! So would you kindly calm the fuck down! If you don't believe me then why don't you simply ask her yourself?" Naruto said in annoyance. Touching a child in that manor is the very _last_ thing he'd ever think of doing.

His angered gaze lingered on Naruto for a moment before he slowly turned his head towards his still bound sister with a questioning look. Receiving a slow nod from his teary eyed sister, his gaze softened.

"Fine." he finally relented, "What do you want with us?" he asked in resignation.

Naruto finally released a sigh, "If you both promise to behave, I'll untie you. As it is, all I need is information, and if your information is good, I have a proposition for the both of you." he explained, immediately receiving a series of head bobs from the sister, and a much more hesitant nod from the brother.

"Good." he said, walking forwards towards the girl before pulling out a kunai. Taking note of her flinch, he cut the rope from her arms and ankles. Instantly she sprung up and ran to her brother before tackling him, as her tears began to fall once more.

Naruto watched for a moment before he slowly walked forward and unbound the boy as well. Replacing the kunai back into his trench coat, Naruto slowly walked back to the table. "Okay, well now that we have a slight understanding of each other, why don't you two tell me your names? I really need something to refer to you both as other than 'boy' or 'girl'."

The duo finally separated from their embrace before looking up at him. The girl quickly wiped her eyes before she answered, "They always called me Gretel, mister."

The boy once more seemed a lot more wary of Naruto than his sister, but after a moment relented, "And I'm Hansel."

Naruto nodded, "Hansel and Gretel eh? you both may call me Naruto. Now, with that out of the way, why don't the both tell me what you know about the Verrocchio family."

Gretel was the one to speak up, restating exactly what she had told in the park. When he had asked if she knew where their headquarters was located, he couldn't help but smirk when she nodded in the affirmative.

"So, why are you after them anyways mister?" Hansel asked in curiosity.

Naruto thought about how to answer for a moment before speaking up. "They... they are the cause of a lot of grief for me," he said a bit hesitantly, "It may be selfish of me, but I'm simply on a mission of revenge. Honestly, that is part of what I wish to offer you both. I was wondering if you wouldn't mind helping me locate and end that fucker Verrocchio." he offered.

The twins looked at each other before turning to face Naruto, both sporting feral grins, exposing their elongated canines. "This works out well for us sora mea."

"Indeed it does fratele meu." Gretel responded.

Naruto was confused, "How so?"

Hansel giggled before speaking up, "Well, we were planing to kill him anyways," he spoke, releasing a bout of giggles, "They're not very nice mister, they got mad when we killed other people while looking for you. They didn't seem to like the way we play either."

Naruto simply shrugged, "Very well then, starting today, we shall work together to achieve out shared goal." he said, a grin firm on his face.

He was now one step closer to revenge.

* * *

**And I think I'll end it there.**

**Yet again, terribly sorry for the long wait, but to be honest, I only started working on this chapter about four days ago... I'm lazy ^_^**

**Alright, please leave a review about what you thought of this chapter, anything that may have confused you, or any errors I may have missed.**

**8/15/2015 - I edited this chapter slightly. Nothing major, just some minor adjustments such as Naruto's adult height.**

**SaucyHandles out!**


	3. Identities Revealed

**Ghosts of the Past**

**-Chapter three-**

* * *

Sitting behind a large wooden desk, smoking a cigar was one Balalaika; the head of the Hotel Moscow crime syndicate and the single most feared woman in all of Roanapur. She was a rather tall, blonde-haired woman in her mid-thirties. Her hair was long, going down to the base of her spine, and was done up in a huge ponytail. Though, the most noticeable aspect of her were the large scars covering the right ride of her face, trailing down her neck and over her breasts, disappearing behind the red dress she wore.

Currently standing in front of her were the four members of the Lagoon Shipping Company; two of which were trying to stay as out of the way as possible, while another simply looked bored to even be there; finally the last member stood dead center in front of the desk, waiting patiently as the woman in front of him took a drag of her cigar.

"Good morning Dutch," Balalaika greeted with a smile. "You're right on time as always. No doubt for the details of the job we spoke about." she said, receiving a nod in return from Dutch.

"Well, we still surprisingly enough have a reputation to keep after all." Dutch joked. It was no secret that while Lagoon Company was known for their excellent success rate regarding the jobs they were often hired to take on, they were just as well known for the chaos and destruction that seemed to always find them.

"Ah yes, I assume that you're referring to your crew's blatant ability to attract trouble, yes?" Balalaika asked rhetorically, letting loose a light laugh. "That is a rather unfortunate problem. Though, perhaps that very same luck of yours will come in handy with the job I have in mind for you." she spoke, a glint entering her eye.

"Is that so? I was under the impression we were gonna' be handling another easy shipment..." Dutch questioned, raising a single eyebrow.

"Oh, you needn't worry about that, I still just need your crew to make a simple delivery for me," she spoke, her face adopting a look of playful mischief. "Just not the delivery we spoke of over the phone."

Before he could question her further, both his and Balalaika's attention was drawn to the plum hair girl, fidgeting off to the side of the room upon her outburst.

"Ugh! What the hell? Can we just get to the point? All this sitting around is starting to piss me off..." Revy spoke, her brow twitching as her face adopted a look of annoyance.

Seeing Balalaika's questioning look, Dutch opted to explain, "Heh, don't worry about Revy, she's just been a little antsy with the lack of excitement recently," he said, earning a middle finger from said woman. "So, what's this job you had in mind?"

Immediately becoming serious, Balalaika spoke up, "Well, as you've no doubt heard by now, the Verrocchio family have been having a bit of trouble regarding the loss of some of their members through, shall we say, less than pleasant means. As it is there's a silent, yet rather bold attack being waged against the Verrocchio family, and yet somehow no one in the city seems to know who the assailants are." she informed, taking a pause as she awaited confirmation of her assumption.

"Yeah, we've heard. I honestly doubt there's a soul in this city that hasn't, it's pretty much common knowledge by now." Dutch responded.

"I suppose you're right, though what's _not_ common knowledge is that the Verrocchio family are _well_ aware of who the assailants are... or should I say, assailant." she spoke, taking pleasure from their shocked expressions.

"Hold up!" Revy said, suddenly cutting in. "You're saying it's just _one_ _asshole_ taking out Verrocchio's men like its going out of style? How the hell are they not dead yet?" Revy questioned incredulously, her anger momentarily forgotten.

Though they didn't voice it, the other members of Lagoon Company were having similar thoughts.

"How they have survived thus far is of no concern to Hotel Moscow. I don't need to explain what we would stand to gain if the Verrocchio family were to suddenly disappear from Roanapur, do I?"

Dutch gave a curt nod, "Alright, I understand, so where do we come into all of this?"

Reaching into one of the drawers on her desk, balalaika produced a single square piece of paper and held it out towards Dutch, who calmly accepted the sheet from her. "That is the face behind the murders."

Upon closer inspection, the sheet of paper was revealed to be a high quality photograph; a man was crouched inside a small alleyway, his arm sheathed up to the elbow through another, less alive, male. His features were unique; his hair a bright shining blond with two long bangs framing his angular face, which held a matching pair of lines on each of his cheeks; three to a cheek. His long trench-coat, red in color, was splashed with a deeper crimson as blood flew from the deadman's brand-new chest wound; The picture clearly having been taken during the fatal attack. Though, out of the unusually gruesome photograph, which appeared to have been taken from the top of an overlooking building, the most startling thing about it was the fact that the blond man's eyes, which were mostly whited out by the reflection of his glasses, were looking in the direction the photo was taken from, and appeared to be a soul searing, blood red color.

"Hey Revy! Isn't that-" began a surprised Rock, having leaned over to view the picture in Dutch's hands the same time as the other two members of Lagoon Company, but before he could finish his thought, he was cut off by Revy.

"Son of a bitch!" Revy shouted, her eyebrow twitching violently, as her annoyance reached its peak for the day. "Yeah, it's that asshole from The Yellow Flag..." she trailed off as she began mumbling to herself about giving people new assholes.

Seeing Balalaika's curiosity was peaked by the outburst, Dutch spoke up once more to explain. "About two and a half weeks ago, we came across this man while we were enjoying a drink at The Yellow Flag. Now Revy, being the people person she is, decided she'd say hello to the new uniquely dressed man after Benny had just made a joke about there being a second Roberta. Which reminds me..." here he slapped Benny on the back of his head, eliciting a slight yelp of surprise from said man. "Benny, you're no longer allowed to tell jokes. Anyways, things seemed to start out alright, everyone was still alive and all, but eventually Revy's _shining_ personality came through and things ended up with her and this man in another stand off, both with a gun to the others head. Normally we'd be having to dodge bullets as we got the hell out of there, but surprisingly enough, that didn't happen; no, instead Rock actually got the two to not kill each other. Regardless, seeing as no one died, I'd consider that day pretty lucky. Though, whether it was our luck or his is another story." Dutch finished, shaking his head at the memory.

The members of Lagoon Company all looked up when they heard barking laughter and were shocked to see it coming from Balalaika.

"See? This is what I mean," she spoke, completely out of character as she wiped a tear from her eye. "I haven't even given you the job yet, and you've all already met the man I want you to find." she explained, taking a moment to regain her composure as she effortlessly slipped back into a more serious attitude.

"What exactly is the job you want us to do?" Dutch finally questioned, getting over his surprise at seeing the most terrifying woman in the city, or in his opinion the _world_, legitimately laugh.

"The job is simple enough, you won't even have to leave the city to do it. All I want you to do is find the man in the photo, and deliver this to him," she said, reaching into her desk once more, before she removed a stack of business cards. "You each are to carry a few of these on you at all times, and if you ever come across the man in the photo, simply hand him one and inform him that I await his call."

Revy, gave a deadpan look, "And you can't just have your men abduct him why?"

Balalaika gave a sigh, "I believe that has to do with what Dutch said earlier; the man has the devil's luck. That photo Dutch is holding is the closest we've been able to get to him. It took multiple squads dispersed around the city, shadowing a few of Verrocchio's men just in order to locate him, and when the sniper team that took the photo radio'd in and we sent a few squads to apprehend him, he simply vanished."

Dutch chose to voice his concerns, "Not to be pessimistic, but how do you expect us to find him if you had a hard time doing such? We're not exactly qualified for detective work," Dutch said before glancing at Benny and Rock. "Well, not all of us..." Benny and Rock together might be able figure something out about the man now that he thought about it. Though, they weren't exactly in a city that kept many records.

"Oh, I have no doubt you'll figure something out," Balalaika said with a smirk. "After all, you do have a sort of natural luck with this sort of thing, do you not?" Dutch could do nothing more than nod his head in agreement. She held a point, they did always seem to fall into the middle of things whenever shit hit the fan.

"So what? You want us to find this asshole that's supposedly impossible to locate and give him your business card? This fucking sucks, a total waste of time. Say we find the asshole and he's not exactly willing to listen, what then? Do we just leave, or do I get to kill him?" Revy asked, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

Balalaika gave a pointed look, "There is only one circumstance in which you are to engage him in _anything_ other than conversation. That being if you believe him to be a threat to Hotel Moscow, in which case you are to do your best to eradicate him, or you are to escape and inform me, so we may deal with him ourselves. This is simply an attempt to establish communications between the two parties, nothing more. Whether or not he chooses to call or is irrelevant, so long as the focus of his attack is solely on the Verrocchio family." she informed vehemently, leaving no room for argument.

Revy was clearly upset about the whole situation, but reluctantly backed down anyways, giving a slight nod to signify that she understood.

"We'll get it done," Dutch said plainly, having decided that they had spent enough time standing around. "Somehow..." he added as an afterthought.

"I'm sure you will, you've always been dependable in the past Dutch," she responded fondly. "Payment will be the same as if you made the other delivery we spoke about, and will be transferred to your account upon completion as usual." she added, signaling the end of the conversation. With a small, shooing motion, Balalaika dismissed the four members; Dutch grabbing the cards from her desk before the door opened and they were let out of her office.

As they left, another man entered the room.

"Are you sure it's wise to send them after such a dangerous man, Kapitan?" asked a broad-built man with a large scar running from the right side of his forehead to his left cheek, in a deep Russian accent. This man was Balalaika's second in command, Boris.

"I hold faith in them Sergeant. With the number of battles that they've been through and have managed to come out victorious in, they're soldiers in their own right," she praised, before lighting another cigar. "Besides, the man they're after hasn't shown any outward aggression towards anyone other than the Verrocchio family. He most likely holds a grudge against them for wronging him in some way or other. Though, there's one thing I'm concerned about should he show to be an enemy rather than a comrade," removing a copy of the photo she gave dutch from her desk she handed it over to Boris. "This man doesn't have the eyes of a soldier, he has the eyes of a demon."

An unsure look crossed Boris' face as he gazed at the photo in his hands, "I apologize Kapitan, but is it not just an effect caused by the camera?" He asked with a bit of hesitation, not understanding her reasoning for believing such a thought.

"Of course it is Sergeant, but does that photo not set off warning bells simply by looking at it? I may not be overly superstitious, but I believe those red eyes are a sign of the danger that man poses to any and all who oppose him." she spoke with a tone of unease.

Silence reigned as Boris simply stared at the picture while Balalaika continued to smoke her cigar. Taking another look at the photo, Boris understood now what she meant; simply looking into the eyes in the photo, he indeed felt a strong unease, as if there was something dangerous he was simply overlooking, something that the photo simply didn't capture but _was_ there.

* * *

"So," Naruto began, seated at the table across from the twins. "I'm rather curious to hear what your plan was to kill Verrocchio. I mean, I've killed some of his men myself, and they're nothing special, but for two kids taking on the whole lot of them, on top of killing Verrocchio himself... well, don't you think that's a bit much to hope to accomplish by yourselves?" he questioned skeptically.

"To be honest mister... we don't have a plan yet. We were going to handle that once you were dead, but now that your _aren't_ dead and we're gonna be working together, we don't have to. That's an adults job anyways." Gretel responded, back to her cheerful personality as she held onto her brother's arm as they both sat on the bed.

Releasing a sigh Naruto nodded lightly, "Hmm, doesn't matter anyways, I've already got one of my own, and it's really simple..." a smile appeared upon his face as he went on to tell the twins about what he wanted to do. Almost immediately they both were sporting equally demented grins, their bloodlust showing at the image of what they were gonna do.

Oh, they were really starting to like him.

* * *

**Alright, I've decided to end it here even though I planned on writing more for this chapter, simply because if I don't post now it'd likely be another couple of months before I did. Please be completely truthful in any reviews left, point out any flaws you see and anything you didn't like. I'm still incredibly new to writing even thought its been about half a year now and I could use any and all help I can get.**

**Any questions will be answered if you just send me a PM.**

_**\- SH**_


	4. Understanding

**Ghosts of the Past**

**Chapter Four**

* * *

Rising from his position in the uncomfortable chair he'd been seated in most of the early morning, Naruto stretched the stiffness from his sore muscles, earning a few audible cracks, before turning his gaze to the window in the small room. Seeing the sun now high in the sky and illuminating the room in a bright golden light, Naruto estimated it to be around noon; the trio having spent the early morning either unconscious or in discussion about various details regarding the Verrocchio family.

Turning his gaze back to the now silent twins Naruto thought back the the last hour of their discussions, but more specifically what he'd viewed of the twins behavior. It was obvious that they were closer than any pair of siblings probably should be, but he really couldn't fault them, knowing that whatever tragedy their lives had been in before he had met the duo, must have broken their psyche and made the duo latch onto one another for stability, most likely causing the sibling bond between the pair to become blurred and evolve into the intimacy and closeness it was now.

Other than the incestuous relationship the pair shared, Naruto took keen note of how the pair reacted around him. It didn't take much to see that Hansel clearly held no trust for him, and most likely only agreed to team up with him do to the love he held for his sister and their disposition at the moment, which he could honestly understand and didn't fault him for. Yet still, while he found Hansel's reaction logical, he was a bit confused to the lack of a negative reaction from the other sibling, Gretel. She showed no outward hatred or loathing for him even though he'd held her precious brother at gun point not but a few hours ago. Even though Naruto knew he'd forced her to acknowledge the mortality they both faced, that should have sparked hatred in her towards himself, not trust. Deciding that it was of no consequence, and probably just her repressing the emotions caused by the helplessness she no doubt felt, Naruto decided to break the quiet the room was currently bathed in.

"Hey," he began, catching their attention as the duo turned their eyes to him, "Since it's about midday and we've all been stuffed up inside this room, I was wondering if you'd both be interested in heading out to get something to eat with me?" he questioned casually.

"W-what?" Hansel stuttered out, confusion very evident in the way he spoke, his eyes ever so slightly narrowed.

"You know, food?" Naruto jokingly clarified, "I'm pretty sure you both could use something to eat, but if you'd rather stay here I could always just go eat alone." Naruto offered teasingly.

"You mean you're just gonna' treat us like we didn't try to kill you, and actually take us out to eat?" Hansel questioned incredulously, showing no acknowledgment to being teased.

"Yup." came Naruto's simple reply.

"But aren't we your prisoners or something? I mean I get that we are going to be killing together but how can you be so care free around us? We were just trying to kill you this morning mister!" Hansel blurted out, having grown annoyed at not being able to figure out a basic personality for their blonde captor and colleague. One moment he was calm and collected, the next he could seem to be more like them and a bit dark, then apparently go into a comfortable and carefree nature if his offer was anything to go by. He was too confusing!

"What's with you mister, why are you so odd?"

Turning to fully face the duo Naruto crossed his arms in front of himself, "First things first. _One_, I already told you my name, so no more of this mister crap. And _two_, I don't know why you'd assume that you were my prisoners when I made it clear we'd be working together. That means a basic level of trust should be shown. On both sides." Naruto finished, raising a single finger with each point.

Hansel stayed silent for a moment, thinking. "So, you really just want us to eat together?" he asked after a moment.

Uncrossing his arms, Naruto placed his hands in the pockets of his coat, taking note when Hansel's eyes narrowed a bit, no doubt assuming he'd been reaching for a weapon. "That's the idea, it'd give us all a chance to get to know each other a bit better," Naruto offered, "Besides, there's a small restaurant near here I've been meaning to try since I came to this Kami forsaken city," turning to look at Gretel Naruto asked once more, "So do the two of you want to get something to eat with me?"

Unsure of what to do Hansel looked to his sister, trying to gauge what her response would be. He was still confused by the trust this man showed them, and was curious to why his sister didn't seem wary of him. The unanswered question of what had been going on before his return to consciousness still wracking his mind. For as long as he could remember the two of them had always been surviving together, never once hesitating to kill so they could live. That's how it always was. They had slain countless others to prolong and extend their own lives, and over the many years they had done so, had learned quickly that the two of them could only trust each other. It simply didn't make sense for his sister to let her guard down so much around a stranger, that only hours ago they had been trying to murder.

His thoughts were interrupted when he noticed his sister immediately slip off the bed, taking note how she never let go of his hand as she stood up, before she turned to him with a smile on her face.

"Come on fratele meu, I'm hungry too." Gretel said, tugging on his arm as she tried to pull him off the bed.

Keeping a wary eye on his captor turned associate, Hansel inclined his head forwards in a nod, "Alright fine, I guess I'll eat with you... but where would we go? It'd be a problem if any of Verrocchio's men see us with you."

Shaking his head slightly, Naruto spoke, "I wouldn't worry too much about that, the part of the city we're currently in is considered neutral territory. Though, I've noticed it's primarily occupied by the forces of Hotel Moscow; very few of Verrocchio's men actually seem to hang around here." He explained.

With a semi-reluctant nod Hansel let himself be pulled up from the bed by his sibling.

Stepping away from the window Naruto began walking towards the door, only to pause when he spotted Hansel and Gretel walking towards the table with their guns on it. "Your gonna have to leave those here." he spoke with a slight shake of his head, only to have Hansel turn to him with a small glare.

"Why? I thought you just said that trust needed to be shown, from _both_ sides." Hansel growled out adding emphasis on the word both.

"Look, it's not that I don't trust you, it's the simple fact that we're just heading down the street and I don't want to be seen with two fully armed teens. It'd draw too much attention to us, even in neutral territory." Naruto countered in mild annoyance.

"No _you_ look, me and my sister need our weapons, we've never gone anywhere without them and I don't want to now!" Hansel hissed, "Either we get to bring our weapons or we aren't going!"

Letting out a heavy sigh Naruto made to retort, only to be beaten by the up till now silent Gretel as she grabbed her brother's arm and gave a light tug, drawing his attention.

"Come one fratele meu... Let's just go eat, I'm sure we'll be fine." she spoke quietly, a look of silent pleading on her face.

Naruto watched in unconcealed curiosity as Hansel's anger seemed to melt away and his muscles eased of their tenseness. The boy turned to look directly at Naruto as his face turned stoney once more. A moment passed as the boy seemed to be at war with himself if the slight movements his face made were of any indication before he finally spoke, "If we go with you, you have to _promise_ that you won't try to harm me or my sister, and that you won't _let_ anyone else harm me or my sister, okay?" he relented before looking down towards the floor, yet still keeping his head raised enough to view Naruto.

"Alright, I promise... on the very reason I'm in this disgusting city." Naruto said, his face becoming softer as he spoke.

Hansel looked up suddenly when he'd heard the tone of voice. It carried so much pain... He wasn't sure how it was possible to convey such raw emotion through so few words, but he was now starting to feel guilty over not trusting him... Not that a few words were going to change his view of this man, but he'd at least give him a shot.

"A-alright... fine," cursing silently to himself for his stutter, Hansel shook his head gently before squeezing his sister's hand that was still grasped in his. Gazing up at her he was mildly surprised to see her looking at him in... pride? "Let's go."

Silently nodding, Naruto simply opened the door before holding it open for the twins as they quickly crept out from the tiny room.

And with that they were on their way.

* * *

**Chapter End**

**Alright so its a lot shorter than usual, but I'm extremely tired so I don't really care too much. Anyways, as always please point out any flaws you notice and I'll fix them.**


	5. Bonding and Reason

**AN: Well, I finally got around to typing this out, and I'm extremely sorry for the long wait! But here I am posting this at 1:25 AM.**

* * *

**Ghosts of the Past**

**-Chapter 5-**

* * *

Stopping briefly Naruto took a moment to gaze at the sky, watching the opaque clouds moving overhead like a blanket as they blocked out the sun, keeping the city bathed in a dreary atmosphere as rain slowly drizzled out at a steady rate. The weather was still just as gloomy as it had been since the day he came to the city, rain falling incessantly on a daily basis. Though, he couldn't help but to think it set the mood pretty well in his opinion. He had no desire to see the sun until after he had gotten back what was precious to him. Until then he just couldn't find it in himself to care about something as petty as the weather.

Shaking himself from his musings, he returned his gaze back in front of himself, meeting a set of expectant looks from his current traveling companions as they stood ahead of him a short distance looking back at him, most likely wondering why he'd stopped walking.

"You do that a lot mister." Gretel remarked, looking at him with a curious expression.

"Sorry, I've just had a lot on my mind lately. Nothing to worry about." Naruto replied as he began walking forward once more, gloved hands tucked into his pockets.

Gretel continued to look at him with that same curious expression, which in his mind made her look all the part of the naive little girl that she should be. It made him a bit disheartened to know that somewhere along the lines, the pair in front of him had had their life derailed so far as to end up the murderous ones they were today.

"It's just when you do it, you look... well sad," she spoke, seemingly unsure of if she should have even brought it up. "I was just wondering, why?"

Naruto internally chuckled at her curiosity. She seemed to display certain traits any child their age would, in this case her curiosity. It gave him a bit of reassurance that perhaps they weren't as broken as he'd initially thought. Turning his gaze to the other child he'd been traveling with he noticed that he too seemed to be curious as well, though he was clearly trying to hide it. So with a light sigh he spoke up as he stood beside them in the rain.

"I suppose I do, huh?" he spoke, rubbing the back of his neck. "I've just been thinking of the past lately is all, but if I'm honest I don't particularly want to talk about it at the moment. It's just, we all have our baggage and that does include me. I'm sure your pasts aren't exactly sunshine and rainbows either. Hell, I doubt its like that for anyone in this entire damn city."

Gretel seemed to understand as she lowered her gaze to the ground. The rain running through her hair briefly before falling to the cement below. As he turned his attention to the other half of the duo, Hansel, he noticed the haunted look in his eyes.

Yup... they had their own baggage just as much as he had his.

Hoping to cheer them up slightly, he spoke up once again. "Alright, no need to get all mopey, it really isn't that big of a deal I suppose. Look, tell you what, I promise I'll open up a little more. How about I tell the two of you about what brought me to this city in the first place? Though, I'd appreciate if we could wait until tonight to do so if the two of you don't mind."

Gretel raised her head a bit so she could see her new blonde companion. She felt a little guilty about even bringing this stuff up. She had just been curious about the way he would seem to get lost in thought at random times throughout the day. If she were honest, her curiosity was only because the man in front of her was such an enigma, both to her and her brother, if the way Hansel had been casting curious glances at the man was of any indication.

"Err... It's alright, we don't need to know if it's so personal mister," here she gave him a bright smile, hoping to lighten the mood. "Right fratele meu?"

Hansel looked over at his sister curiously. Why was she being so considerate of this man? Sure he didn't seem to wish them any harm, but it was just so weird if he was honest. He simply didn't feel comfortable with trusting this man yet. After all, they had just met the man _that morning_ and things had already changed so much. He didn't particularly like change, but the rational side of him still thought that being able to trust someone else for once wouldn't be so bad. Ugh! He'd be sure to make Mr. Verrocchio's death painful for putting him and his sister in this situation in the first place!

He was abruptly taken out of his thoughts as he felt himself be nudged. Brought back to reality, he noticed that his sister was sending him a strange look, a mixture between curiosity and concern. Noticing his blunder and that he'd no doubt been silently staring at her for the past half minute, he quickly shook his head in agreement. "Er... yes sora mea."

"Don't worry about it, it'll be a sign of trust, the same as us spending time together today. Besides, I don't want you both thinking I'm some evil man out to get the two of you, so being open about it won't hurt." Naruto remarked nonchalantly, taking a few steps forward before looking back at the duo. "Anyways, we should probably get going before the two of you wind up sick."

Receiving a set of nods, the trio began their walk once more.

* * *

The pitter-pattering of rain hitting the windshield, mixed with the lulling sounds of the wipers swishing back and forth were the only sounds that pervaded the interior of Dutch's 1969 Plymouth Road Runner as the members of the Lagoon Company each sat idly in their seats, occupying themselves with their own individual thoughts.

"So about that man... the one in the photograph I mean," Rock began, breaking the silence and garnering the attention of the other occupants in the car. "I understand that it's beneficial for Balalaika and Hotel Moscow respectively that he's going after the Verrocchio Family, but if Hotel Moscow wants the Verrocchio Family gone, why haven't they attempted to do anything before? Or even now for that matter? I mean, it's clear that Balalaika holds no respect for them, and she's not exactly the kind of woman to just sit idly by when there's something that she wants, so I guess what I'm asking is why hasn't she?"

Turning her head from the window beside her, Revy spoke up apathetically, "Hmm? Yeah, I suppose you wouldn't know about all the technical shit of how this city runs, you haven't exactly been here long enough _to_ know. Anyways, the gist of it is that currently Roanapur's just basically been in a cease fire type of situation. Not much more than that really. To start up a war right now would throw the city into chaos and Sis knows that. So I guess that's why." she finished, before turning to look back out the window.

"Cease fire? I don't think I understand..." turning to look at her, Rock caught the rolling of her eyes through the reflection in her window.

"Look," she began, turning to look at him once more. "all I know is that _basically_ a long time ago it was more or less just Hotel Moscow and the Hong Kong Triads here, and that the two didn't exactly get along very well back then. Simply put, there was a war raging here awhile back between the two over the usual shit that people fight over; power, money, trade routes... Just stupid shit like that. But anyways, awhile back shit _really_ hit the fan and was just about to reach its bloody climax like a girl getting banged on her period, but right when Sis and Mr. Chang were about to off each other, someone intervened and stopped it. Now surprisingly, that someone is actually none other than the bossman himself," having made a short motion towards Dutch, whom was sitting in the front passenger seat, she continued. "But how and why I honestly couldn't tell you because the asshole won't even tell _me_." here she sent a small glare at Dutch, receiving a slight chuckle in return from the man.

"Only because I know it bugs you Revy. Besides, snoops don't live long in this business." he remarked teasingly. Letting out a low growl Revy kicked the seat in front of her, causing Benny to look back at her through the rear view mirror.

"Would you mind not kicking my seat Revy? I'm trying to drive."

In a testament to the falsehood of her foul mood, Revy smiled at him through the mirror. "Yeah Benny? And just why should I? I mean you drove pretty well when we had that killer maid after us, so what's a little nudge?"

Benny made a face as if contemplating her words. "Hmm... Well, when you put it that way, I suppose its nothing, but I'd still appreciate if you didn't do it," looking back at her though the rear-view mirror once more, he noticed that she was flicking him off. Though, judging by the look on her face he could tell that she didn't mean anything rude by it and was just messing with him, which in turn made him decide to return the favor. "Hmm, well I can tell how appreciated my driving is, so I guess I'll just stop then. I mean, unless you want to say you're sorry that is." here he let go of the wheel and crossed his arms while still maintaining his foot on the gas pedal. The car soon began to to veer to the left ever so slightly so that soon it would cross the center median and head into oncoming traffic.

Dutch shook his head while remaining calm. He knew Benny wouldn't actually let them crash, just as well as he knew that Revy knew he wouldn't. Though he did get a kick out of hearing Rock's characteristically panicked shout of "What the hell?!", before the boy quickly started berating Revy.

Revy meanwhile was laughing while she leant forward on Benny's seat, "Oh come on Benny! You're a fantastic driver! I'm sorry!" she spoke between bouts of laughter in a tone that would normally be viewed as overly playful for the situation.

Sending her his own playful smirk through the mirror, he quickly grabbed the steering wheel. "You're darn right I am!"

"You both have a demented sense of humor." Rock remarked once he'd calmed down after realizing it was a joke. He had been too busy studying the photo in his hands to realize immediately that Benny had simply been playing around; something he rarely seen the man do in such a manner. He'd just been startled when he'd looked up to see them rolling into the wrong lane, while Benny seemingly did nothing to prevent it.

"You know Rock, you'll probably grow to have a sense of humor similar if you stay here long enough. I'd like to think its simply a byproduct of the freedoms that come with a place like this. Sure the city might be a rather crude place to live, but it certainly comes with its own set of liberties." Benny said matter of factly. Revy turned to him as well.

"Yeah, grow some balls Rock! I mean there _are_ worse ways to die other than crashing a car. I mean, just take the fucking Cleaners as an example," Revy shook her head as if creeped out. "Now that's a hell of a way to go."

"Cleaners?" Rock asked.

Revy shook her head, "Nah, probably best you don't know about them. Just pray you never learn through personal experience," taking a look at him she quickly snatched the photo from his hands. "Besides, what you _should_ be questioning is how the fuck this asshole got his arm _through_ that poor bastard," She spoke looking at it intensely. "Some kind of bladed gauntlet maybe? Still pretty intense. Even if I hate this asshole, I have to admit he has style in the way he kills. Real photogenic. He'd probably do really well in the snuff film industry."

Rock's stomach churned at the thought of snuff films. He couldn't fathom how such an industry even existed, and thinking about it made him queasy. Up front, Dutch simply shook his head at Revy's antics. For as long as he'd known her she'd always been deeply interested in the different ways people killed each other, and hearing her mumble to herself as she tried to figure out how this particular man killed his victim only confirmed to him that she'd already unknowingly grown a fascination towards him. No doubt she'd be looking to battle the man, It was just the was she was. Show her any battle prowess and her blood would boil, and before you knew it her blood-lust would show its ugly face. Still, while she could sometimes get out of hand with her blood-lust, and while he wouldn't say it aloud, she was practically family.

"Well Revy, you can ask the man himself when we no doubt run into him again."

* * *

Naruto sat comfortably in a curved booth with the twins, whom were currently sitting side by side slightly further down from him. Sitting on the table were a couple plates and a bowl; the food they had ordered. The restaurant itself was decent enough, if a bit strange, seeing as they offered dishes from many different cuisine styles, which was far from commonly done. The menu seemed to consist mainly of various Asian and European dishes, with a few more in-between, but what Naruto wanted to try and had thusly ordered was the miso-ramen.

The twins on the other hand were another matter. Naruto found it rather funny and endearing when they had been asked what they wanted to order by the waitress. Watching them look completely uncertain on what to say or do, before they both had turned to him as if asking for ideas. He would've assumed they were just questioning how much they could spend if he hadn't already given them permission to order whatever they liked. No, they both seemed like they'd never actually _been_ to a restaurant. Naruto found it amusing when Gretel turned her gaze from him to her brother, before apparently not liking the pressure the boy simply pointed at a picture on the menu, which happened to be a classic cheeseburger. Gretel had merely mirrored her brothers action.

When the waitress had asked what they would like as a side, Naruto decided he'd take pity on them and had told her they'd have the macaroni and cheese. And with that the woman had left to get their food, before returning a few minutes later with their orders. Which led to where the trio was now.

"This actually isn't bad," Naruto remarked having taken a mouthful of noodles. "Not the best I've ever had, but better than I was expecting." looking up he seen the twins look at their burgers before slowly Hansel took a bite. Sending his sister a look, she too began to eat as well, and soon the trio sat in silence as they consumed their meals.

Before long Naruto had finished his ramen, and the twins had filled up on their respective meals; having finished off their macaroni, but still leaving a half eaten burger each. Naruto internally laughed at that; what a childlike thing to do. Garnering a waitress' attention, he received the bill and a few small boxes, before the trio stood and left the restaurant.

"Thanks mister..." Gretel quietly said as they stood outside the store; Naruto glanced down at her. He was relieved that the experience wasn't a total wash, seeing as they hadn't really said anything while inside. He was initially worried that perhaps an awkward meal together wasn't exactly a great bonding experience, but from the way she had thanked him, he could tell, or at least believe that she meant it. Though, he had a feeling that she was talking about his kindness in general, and not just the meal.

"Don't worry about it kiddo," glancing up at the still cloudy sky, Naruto took note that just barely visible through the cloud coverage, the sun was beginning its descent over the horizon; soon it would be dark. "Anyways, we should get back to the hotel and grab your stuff, it's almost time." Naruto stated as he turned towards the direction they had originally come from; the twins simply nodded before the trio set off, with Naruto in the middle as the siblings walked with him on each side, carrying their respective boxed-leftovers.

* * *

A loud smacking noise was heard as a large man slammed his clenched hands against the solid-wood desk in front of him.

"Where the _FUCK_ are those two shit-nosed brats?!" sliding his arms the man threw the contents of the desk onto the floor. "All they had to do was get rid of that damn blond-haired, coat-wearing bastard! So why the _FUCK_ am I up to my knees in dead bodies still?!" breathing heavy the man ran one of his hands through his combed-back blond hair.

"Er... boss?" came the nervous voice of a thinly built, black-haired man, who was standing in front of the desk alongside many other men all dressed in suits.

"What?!" the blond-haired man shouted, making the man fidget slightly. The boss was clearly beyond pissed-off. He was made even more uncomfortable when the man stepped out from behind his desk and stood in front of him. It took him a moment to re-gain his voice before he finally managed to put his thoughts into words.

"It's just... Why don't we just cut our losses and get rid of them?" the man practically squeaked out. "It's just... they're too much to handle... and it's already been days since they've reported in. I think-" he was cut off as the blond man's fist collided with his face, sending a torrent of blood from his nose before he fell flat on his ass, clutching the now broken appendage.

"Oh... Well, why didn't you say so?! Too much to handle, are they?! Why do you think I called those brats here in the first place?! Let me tell you something," raising his leg high he brought it down with all his might; stomping on the downed man's stomach, causing him to cough blood onto the floor. "When I _WANT_, your _FUCKING_, _OPINION_... I'll _ASK_ you for it!" the blond-haired man made sure to emphasize certain words with a rather nasty kick, before he stopped for a moment. Picking up the bloodied man firmly by the hair, he held him up at eye level, before, with a snarl, he proceeded to slam the man's face into the nearby wall repeatedly, gradually coating it in with a splatter of blood that grew with every collision. The rest of the men in the room all looked on with cringes.

Dropping the body of the man whose blood was now painting the wall, he turned his attention to the others in the room as he spoke up once more.

"Let me tell you all something else! I bet you didn't know that the bosses in Palermo have actually shown some interest in this damned-backward piece-of-shit city! Now they're starting to question my leadership because I've yet to take control of the situation! Do you have any _idea_ how big of a joke it makes me look like when I have to report back to them that I'm losing men daily, and its just _one,_ _fucking,_ _guy,_ making us look like complete dumb-asses?! All you useless bastards better listen up! Unless I do something about it now, what happens to me at the next meeting of the families?! Take a guess!" here he kicked the downed man's body once more. "Damn it!"

The room remained silent as nobody particularly wanted to draw attention to themselves at the moment, before an average-looking man stepped forward from the crowd.

"Err...Boss?"

Looking up the blond-haired man snarled at the man but didn't make any attempt to stop him from talking.

"Permission to speak sir?" the man asked quickly, not wanted to follow in the footsteps of the man prior.

"Speak." the blond man growled out concisely.

"I just wanted to suggest we hire more bounty hunters to take care of this guy... the twins too if you'd like... I can have a list made up in a few minutes." he spoke quickly, while he stood stiff with his back ram-rod straight. The blond sitting behind his desk once again simply growled again before he leaned further into his chair.

"Do it."

* * *

Naruto and the twins found themselves once again sitting in their room in the Ramsap Inn; the twins sat on a single bed, with Naruto standing near the window. It was now dark outside, so turning to the twins Naruto spoke up.

"It's time we started our hunt," walking to the table he sat down. "You two sure you still want to go through with this? I'd have no problem if you just left town. This isn't exactly going to be the safest of places once things start getting heated up." he spoke, keeping the concern from his voice hidden. Truth was, when he had initially made the offer he had planned to just use the duo as a minor distraction. But try as he might, he couldn't help but to see them simply as children, and after spending the day with them, he couldn't break that last part of himself that tied them to the reason he was here in the first place.

The twins looked at each other for a moment; a silent debate going on between the pair, before they both turned to him and spoke simultaneously.

"We're sure mister." their voices harmonized in a slightly unsettling way.

"If that's really what you want, then I won't stop you. But before we get started tonight, and potentially enter hell together, I just wanted to stay true to my word," the twins both looked confused, before he spoke up once more. "I promised you both earlier I'd tell you what brought me to this terrible city in the first place, and I plan to stay true to my word." taking a locket out of his pocket he clicked in the top and it opened.

"Simply put?-"

"-I'm here looking for my daughter..."

* * *

**Chapter End!**

**And woo! That was actually extremely fun to write! No idea how many words it is yet, and I'll continue to not know until I post it in a little bit here, but I'm really hoping its a decent length to make up for the wait!**

**As for the chapter itself. If you notice any mistakes, grammatical or otherwise, PLEASE point them out to me via review or PM.**

**Also, any questions asked either via review or PM will be answered so long as its not a spoiler!**

**If I'm completely honest, I'm not sure how the chapter turned out, so a review of what you thought of it would greatly help! If you think it needs a rewrite, please say so, along with the reasons you think so.**

**SaucyHandles out!**


	6. Message Man

**AN: I'm Tired...**

**Re-posting**** this since the traffic stats aren't working... Anyone have any idea what that's about? I actually like to see the views I get and how long before I stop getting them, so it bugs be a little bit. Anyways, hoping this time it starts working since it was only not working for chapter six.**

**Also, for those of you that care, I already have the next chapter in the works. I just need to look some stuff up. I'm trying my best not to make those of you that care wait for month and months like chapters 1-4, since I'm actually starting to have fun writing. I do believe I broke past my laziness!**

* * *

**Ghosts of the Past**

**-Chapter Six-**

* * *

"Your... daughter?" Hansel questioned, seemingly baffled by the thought. He wasn't sure what he was expecting, but that sure wasn't it. Thinking about it, he could only come up with a few things such a statement could mean, and none were exactly pleasant. Gretel remained seated silently by his side, she had the same thought on her mind though.

Still seated in his chair at the table, Naruto spoke up with a sigh. "Yeah, she was around your age the last time I saw her. She was always such a bright and cheery little girl... we did everything together," shaking his head to try and clear the emotions that wanted to flood him he let out another sigh as he looked up at the twins. "Anyways, the point is that I came here in the first place because I believe she's somewhere within this disgusting city. I'm here to get her back and bring her home... or at the very least end one more string of the damn Sicilian mafia."

Naruto's face slipped into a scowl at the thought of them, before it softened when he looked back at the twins.

"I can't help but to compare you kids to her. It's sad but in a better world, she's what you could have been, but in this actual world, you're what she might have become. If you truly want to help I won't try to stop you anymore, but I want to give you both a second chance to reconsider; are you sure you want to join me?"

Naruto looked directly at them, his face lacking all humor. He wanted their honest answer.

"I... _we_, see," Gretel spoke up, correcting herself since she knew Hansel understood as well. It was funny just how much they truly could relate. It was also ironic how close this man had hit to home without even knowing he did. They too had reasons to hate the Sicilian mafia; reasons that they both wished they could just forget about. Turning to look to the man Gretel spoke up once again, a look of determination adorning her face. "We want to help you mister... you've been... different... then all the others we've met so far. Like you're in a different world or something..." it was hard to talk like this with someone that wasn't her brother. The whole trusting others was a new concept to her; her brother too.

Hansel looked slightly down when he heard his sister speak those words. As much as he wanted to deny it, he simply couldn't. The man who they had been hired to murder had been the first to ever treat them any different than a couple of monsters. He honestly didn't want this to be goodbye; not when there was finally a chance for them to stop being so alone. So when the man had turned to look at him, no doubt wanted to hear his opinion, Hansel nodded without delay. "I want to help too."

Naruto smiled softly. "Thanks," he spoke sincerely. "Then if that's what you both want, why don't we get started?" standing up Naruto maintained a sincere smile. Quickly the twins had grabbed their gear; Hansel grabbing his pistols from the table and stuffing them into a set of holsters hidden by his coat, before reaching down and picking up his axes and attaching them to a harness attached to the lining of said coat.

Gretel on the other hand simply picked up the now cloth-bound machine gun that was leaning against the wall. It wasn't a girls job to get all sweaty after all. She had no need for anything other than her gun. The trio were soon all standing in front of the door.

"Well, shall we?" with that Naruto opened the door.

* * *

"Hey, you hear what the boss did to Luca?"

Standing in an alleyway were two men dressed in suits. The man who had spoken was of average build and had blond hair. He was currently looking at the other whom was standing opposite him; lazily leaned against the brick wall.

"Yeah, it just ain't right."

"Tell me about it. Gherardo said he was just barely hanging on to life when they got him to the doc. Apparently those twins the boss brought in from Romania still haven't killed their target and it's got him on a hair-trigger," the man shook his head for a moment. "Even worse is that since those brats haven't shown themselves for the last few days, he's bringing in a bunch of bounty hunters, so soon this place is going to turn into a shit-storm, and you know when word gets around a lot of people already here are going to be trying to get in on it. Heaven knows word spreads fast in a city like this."

Running a hand through his black hair, the man leaning against the wall sighed. "Yeah, I hate it when shit like this happens. It's never a quiet night in this damn place. Why I had to be transferred here is beyond me. I mean take a look at the crazy shit that happens here. Less than half a year and we've had EO mercs invade, then we had that crazy-ass maid that apparently nearly wiped out the Manisalera Cartel single handedly before those Ivan's got to them and finished the rest. I tell you life was definitely a lot simpler back in Marsala," with a sigh, he looked up to his blond-haired partner. "Anyways, you probably shouldn't wear red when all those mercs get into town. You know all they're going to be told is to look for a tall blond wearing red."

The blond-haired man laughed. "Ha, don't worry about it, red's not my color."

"Tell me abou-" the black-haired man was cut off when a new voice interrupted him.

"I think you'd look good in red mister!" came a cheery voice from the entrance of the alley. The pair turned toward the voice, only to see a duo of similarly dress children. Judging by their hair, eyes and face they were twins.

"Hey, aren't those the twins the Boss hired? What the hell are they doing here?" the blond asked his partner, who's face showed his agitation. These two brats were already causing problems for them. If they'd just done their job like they'd been asked to, Luca wouldn't be in critical condition. So he was pretty pissed off at them; even if it wasn't their direct fault. Turning fully to them he decided to address them.

"You two have any fucking idea how angry the Boss is right now?! All he wanted you to do was dissect that fucking blond maniac! He never said anything about disappearing for days on end without any results! Now here's what you're gonna do: you're gonna go get your shit and get the hell outta the city! You have 'til tomorrow before your lives are considered forfeit and the bounty extends to the two of you as well!" he was still pissed that these two hadn't killed the man that was murdering his friends and colleagues.

"I hate being scolded for no reason. It makes me want to cry. Don't you agree fratele meu?" Gretel maintained an overly cheerful face as she said this, leading to the unease the men felt as they watched the duo carefully.

"Yes sora mea, I agree," a smile appeared on the boys face, exposing his elongated canines, before he reached an arm into his coat and removed a single axe. "And if I'm honest sora mea? I'm sick of it." he immediately began sprinting at the now alarmed mobsters, whom were just now attempting to take out there own guns.

Unfortunately for them they were unable to react quick enough and as such paid the price.

The first man received the business end of the axe to the side of his knee, causing his eyes to widen in pain and horror as the bladed weapon passed straight through it without pause. A deep crimson-ichor spewed forth from the fresh wound and the man quickly collapsed to the ground screaming in agony as he clutched his now severed limb. The second man had by now managed to get his gun out, but the moment he took to hesitate upon seeing his friend go down was his own undoing. It took less than a second for Hansel to suddenly spin around and swing his arm. The man had barely anytime to register what had happened before he watched as the arm he was holding the gun with slid from his body and struck the ground below.

"Gahhh!" the man let lose a pained scream, before the next moment he was unable to as his head was severed from the rest of his body. Blood spurted from his exposed arteries like a fountain, before the corpse collapsed to the ground.

Hansel turned back to the still screaming man who was now laying in a puddle of his own blood. He seemed to be completely out of it. The man kept shifting between screams and sobs. It brought a smile to Hansel's face. He was _really_ sick of always being talked down to by adults, and ever since he'd met their blond-haired partner he'd had a taste of what it felt like to be spoken to as an equal. As someone who mattered, and he had _no_ plan to give that up; not when it just began. "You know? You don't look so good mister," Hansel let out a laugh. "Does he sora mea?"

Gretel stepped up to stand next to her brother. "I told you you'd look good in red mister!" she chuckled darkly. The man turned his attention from his leg to look at them. Still sobbing he fell back onto his elbows before he began to try to crawl away

"Y-you m-monst-monsters!" continuing to crawl, the man left a short trail of blood. All he could keep his mind focused on was escape! Those were no children! He had to get away...

"Bad boy! You mustn't run away!" stepping up to stand next to the sobbing man who only continued to crawl, she smiled evilly down at him. Monsters? Everyone always said the same thing. They were nothing more than monsters... Well... If thats what the man saw them as then she had no problem with humoring him. Keeping pace with the crawling man, who at this point seemed like he was soon going to pass out from blood loss, she stomped on his stump of a leg; laughing as he screamed once more. "Fretele meu... I think he's too heavy the way he is for his Angel to be able to lift him to heaven. You should help him!"

Hansel kept a dark smile on his face as he too approached the man. "Sure sora mea," lifting his axe, he quickly brought it down on the mans hand; severing his fingers just below the knuckles. "Oops, I guess our new friend was right sora mea, I need to practice more." he laughed as he raised his axe yet again. This time when he brought it down it struck and severed the man's entire left arm, eliciting the man to let loose a blood curdling scream, though it came out as more of a choking sob. Hansel went to raise his axe once more, but before he could bring it down again, the man's sobbing died out and his chest stopped moving, a sign that he had breathed his last breath. Disappointed Hansel lowered his blood coated axe.

"What are we going to do sora mea?" Hansel asked as he stared down at the body of the now-dead man; Gretel looked at him with curiosity.

"What do you mean fratele meu?"

"I mean, what are we doing? We were supposed to come here, kill who we were hired to and keep moving... but so much has changed," reaching down the boy absentmindedly wiped the blood off his axe using a small unstained portion of the dead-man's suit. "After we're done here, are we still gonna leave? I-I just don't think I want to anymore. I don't know if we can trust that man... but just being around him makes me want to regardless. I can't explain it well sora mea, but we have nothing waiting for us anywhere else..." Hansel look solemnly at the ground.

"I know what you mean fratele meu," Gretel replied sincerely. She knew exactly what he was talking about. It hadn't even been a day, yet she already found herself growing more and more comfortable around the man. It finally felt like they might have a place to belong; somewhere where they were wanted. It was a pleasant feeling for once and she craved it. Her brother too from what he had said. "...I would like to stay."

Hansel looked up upon hearing his sister's opinion. "So is that it? We're just going to stay here? Er... do we just ask him?... What if he doesn't want us?" even though it'd been quite awhile ago, Hansel still couldn't forget their time in the orphanage. They'd been told that someday they'd get their own family, that some couple would come along to adopt them and the others and that they shouldn't worry. Sadly no one ever came to the orphanage before the mafia did. He remembered feeling beyond betrayed when the caretaker had brought them into a room with a couple of men in suits, before telling them she was sorry. The next thing they knew was that someone had put a rag in front of their faces and then darkness. "Why would he want us sora mea? You know how everyone sees us..."

Gretel nodded sadly. "It's all we can do fratele meu," she looked him in the eyes. "But before we can worry about that, we have to help deal with Mr. Verrocchio and his men. We must call upon an Angel for every one of them. They do say heavens nice, after all. Don't they?" smiling she leaned in and lightly kissed her brother, who returned the gesture.

"Yes sora mea." Hansel spoke with a small smile.

Turning to a door that was near the first mans body, the duo walked to it before slowly opening it and walking inside. This building in particular was the safe house that was provided to them by Mr. Verrocchio for them to stay in; it also held all of their belongings in it. Walking down a short hallway the twins soon came to a door on their right, before they opened it and walked inside. Sitting on the bed was a suitcase.

"We won't be coming back here again, so whatever we need we should take with us, okay?" Gretel spoke as she walked over to the closet and began removing clothes.

"I know that sora mea," Hansel opened the suitcase before he walked to the lone table in the room. There were a few boxes of ammo and a couple passports sitting on it. He stacked the boxes of ammo and placed the passports on top before bringing the lot to the suitcase and packing it away. Soon Gretel had packed all the clothes away as well.

"Well lets get going fratele meu!" Gretel spoke happily as Hansel picked up the suitcase and walked to the door.

Leaving the building the duo began walking back the way they came.

* * *

Naruto stood on the roof of a building, overlooking a moderately sized warehouse. It wasn't as large as some of the industrial ones located nearby, clearly being meant for personal use rather than company use, but that mattered very little to Naruto. He wasn't exactly here as a potential buyer. No he was here to send a message.

From his vantage point Naruto could see through the high windows as he watched a few men walk around inside the place. Clearly they were guards Verrocchio had put here to protect the warehouse and the goods inside. They were all armed with Berreta M12 submachine guns, as they patrolled around the warehouse. He could clearly see five of them inside the building, but he knew there were three more hanging around the outside of the building from the reconnaissance he'd done just prior to jumping to the roof in which he currently stood.

Preparing himself to begin, he slowly removed a kunai from his coat before silently crawling to the corner of the building in which better overlooked the area he needed to see. A few moments later a man dressed in a dark suit stepped out from around the corner of the warehouse before he stood a short distance in front of a door. This was one of the three guards that where patrolling the outside of the building. Unlike the guards inside the warehouse, these men didn't have their guns out in the open; instead promoting to keep them concealed. Naruto had taken note that they would spend about five minutes guarding a single door before they rotated and would circle the building once before stopping in front of a different door. Sort of like an odd game of musical chairs.

Drawing his arm back Naruto launched the kunai silently through the air. It struck the man in his throat causing his eyes to widen momentarily before the blade pushed out the other side of his neck, severing his spinal-cord before the body soon collapsed to the ground. Placing his hand in a tiger-seal Naruto used a basic Shunshin to appear down by the body. He was glad he had the freedom to finally cut loose and use Jutsu again. He didn't dare use any where questions might be asked. The last thing he wanted was to be hunted like Sasquatch. Humans just couldn't leave what they didn't understand alone.

Returning his attention back to the matter at hand he created a seal-less shadow clone. Without word the clone picked up the body and disappeared in a Shunshin of its own. With the body gone Naruto proceeded to make his way to the corner in which the man had came from. He knew the other guard would only be about fifteen feet away guarding a door of his own, so making another tiger seal he activated the Meisaigakure no Jutsu. With the invisibility technique in place Naruto slowly crept around the corner and made his way towards the unaware man.

Once he was close enough Naruto dropped the technique, smiling when the man's eyes widened in surprise at his sudden appearance. The man made to let out a startled cry, but before he could Naruto wrapped his arm around the man's neck and gave a sharp twist. A quick succession of loud cracks marked the man's death at his hands. Without much thought he made another shadow clone that quickly disappeared with the body as well. Mentally noting that it'd been about four minutes since he's started Naruto approached the next corner, which was only a short distance away. He decided he'd rather just wait for the next man to come to him.

Almost exactly one minute later the last man could be heard lazily walking towards the corner. When he finally rounded the bout and revealed himself Naruto struck forth with the speed of a snake and jabbed him directly in the throat; crushing the man's windpipe. The man almost immediately dropped to his knees, eyes wide and panicked as he clutched at his crushed throat. He was clearly in pain, but upon seeing Naruto standing I front of himself he quickly scrambled into his suit jacket to withdraw his weapon. He never managed to complete the motion however as a blade quickly penetrated his skull.

Naruto grimaced a bit. He thought that would've killed him a bit faster. Instead it seemed a bit cruel. That concern was quickly forgotten as he remembered exactly who these men chose to work for. Repeating the same process as the last two times the body was soon disposed of and out of sight. With the three outer guards dead he now had to work to kill the five men inside quickly and efficiently. He couldn't risk having one of them call for backup and alert Verrocchio that he was here. Not because there was any higher risk if such a thing happened, but because it'd simply negate the message he was trying to send; making this whole trip pointless.

Closing his eyes briefly Naruto reopened them a second later revealing he now had red irises with three stretched triangles that curved at the top so that they wrapped around his pupil, similar to a pinwheel(1)*. A moment later he walked to the door the last man had been guarding, before he seemingly phased right through it without a making a sound.

The interior of the warehouse was almost exactly what one would imagine a warehouse to look like. There were rows of shelving along the walls, each standing a good twenty-five feet high with a good majority of them being used to store crates. More shelves filled up the middle of the room, also holding crates, though these ones were more elongated, most likely holding various guns. At the far end of the warehouse was an attached dock, with a type of loading bay for small boats to enter into the actual warehouse itself, with some machinery that was obviously used to unload various supplies from said boats.

To his left was a room that was likely a small office. Next to that was a small staircase leading up to some catwalks that overlooked the entire interior of the building. Now that he had a more in depth view of the interior Naruto noticed their were actually seven guards inside. The five he'd been able to see through the windows, with two more up top watching over everything from the catwalks.

Deactivating the Sharingan, Naruto made a single shadow-clone. A second later they each had the Meisaigakure no Jutsu active, rendering both invisible. The now invisible duo silently made their way up the stairs before taking separate routes, each making their way to one of the guards up top. Standing behind a guard each they both simultaneously removed a kunai before they grabbed them to cover their mouths as they proceeded to slit the throats of the men they were standing behind.

With the need to remain silent still in mind both original and clone slowly lowered the bodies of the men and gently laid them down on the catwalks. The blood that was now being released luckily didn't fall down to the floor below due to the fact that the catwalks that were installed weren't grated and instead were solid; even going as far as to have lips around the bottom of the floor that prevented any blood from pooling over the edge. With the men up top now dead, both Naruto and the clone each hopped over the railing of their respective perches, silently landing in their individual rows of shelving, right behind a single guard each.

Without pause they quickly repeated the same motion as up top and slit the throats of these men as well. This time they simple dropped the bodies since their was no metal for them to reverberate. Each hearing the dull thud of the others target hitting the floor the duo quickly moved forward at a light jog, coming to the end of their rows. Ahead of them now was the loading bay, which was currently closed. Standing by the wall a good ten feet away and between the rows they each were in was a single guard, lazily smoking a cigarette with his weapon being held in his free hand. He didn't seems to realize anything was wrong at the moment which was a good sign.

Deciding nothing fancy was required Naruto quickly through the kunai he was holding. With the angle the man was at from them, the blade went through the man's throat diagonally, ripping it wide open causing him to drop the cigarette and gun as he clutched at his neck that now had a massive slash in it. He let out a gurgling noise as blood quickly drained from his neck.

Nodding to his still invisible clone, they both turned back and headed straight for the office they had passed by initially. Standing outside the door they dropped their invisibility techniques. Naruto quickly ran through a set of five hand-seals, ending with the dragon-seal while his clone simultaneously ran through its own hand seals.

"Futon: Kazekiri no Jutsu!"

"Futon: Daitoppa!"

The names of the techniques were called out at the same time, before an invisible wind blade was sent through the door and into the room behind, followed immediately by a incredibly strong gust of wind which blew straight through the door and tossed everything back. Storming into the room with kunai drawn, the duo was met with the sight of two corpses which were severed in many places with the back wall of the room being completely spattered with blood. Everything in the room had been destroyed and pushed harshly against the far wall as well.

With a nod of satisfaction Naruto dismissed his clone before leaving the now destroyed room. He then made his way back over to the main storage area before walking up to one of the many crates that were lining the shelves. Kunai still in hand he wedged it into the crate and pried it open, revealing many tightly wrapped bundles of white powder. With a nod he repeated the process with one of the elongated crates, revealing it was filled with various assault rifles. He repeated the process a few times and most of the crates were filled with either, guns, drugs or ammo.

Naruto created a shadow clone that stayed behind as he made his way over to the rear where the docking bay was and smashed his hand on a switch which caused the closed shutters to begin opening. Without word he swiftly began running out onto the water until he was soon a good fifty feet away from the warehouse, before he turned around and ran through a set of hand-seals one last time, ending with the tiger-seal.

"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!"

Naruto raised his left hand up to his mouth as a large jet of fire left it, before shaping itself into a massive fireball. The huge ball of fire quickly traveled over the water, leaving behind a path of steam, before it entered through the loading bay of the warehouse. It soon detonated into a massive cloud of fire that began to incinerate everything on the inside of the building, while a massive amount of smoke was blasted out from the building via the open loading-bay doors. Soon, explosions and loud pops began to echo throughout the area as the various crates inside were consumed by the flames.

With a small smile Naruto quickly made a tiger-seal before he Shunshined back to the shore and up to the top of the building he'd originally been standing on. He watched the warehouse burn for a minute or so until the sounds of sirens could be made out in the distance. Without another sound he quickly activated the Sharingan before leaving in a vortex.

* * *

"He's still not back sora mea..."

Gretel looked at her brother. "He said it might take a couple of hours fratele meu. We just need to be patient!" She said cheerfully. Earlier after they had discussed whether or not they planned to stay in town or not when all was said and done, the duo had returned back to the hotel room with their things. Upon entering the room though, they had noticed their blond-haired partner still had not returned. He had stated when they split up that he would be taking care of his own side of things, and that it could take a few hours, and that they might have to wait for him. So here they were, waiting.

They had already been back for over thirty minutes, and with nothing to do they had spent the time talking further in depth on what they wanted to do with themselves. So far they had already agreed that if they were allowed, they would stay with the man and go wherever he went. Wherever that might be they had no clue, but they figured it would be better then wandering aimlessly. They then had resorted to trying to guess what the man's daughter might look like. They had conjured up the image of a short blond-haired girl with pigtails, wearing an orange jumpsuit, and constantly screaming, "Believe it!". They had then giggled at the absurdity of their imaginary creation. With nothing left to do the duo had just sat on the bed waiting, which was where they were now.

"I'm nervous sora mea... what if he doesn't agree with our idea? What will we do then?" Hansel couldn't help but feel a bit insecure at the moment, It had been a long time since they had last sought the approval of another person. And the last time they had might as well have been in a different lifetime with everything that had changed and happened to them. So having to put themselves and their desires out in the open like they planned was putting knots in his stomach.

Gretel seemed to think about it for a moment before she giggled into her hand. "Then I guess we'll just follow him anyways. It's not like we need his approval fretele meu!" she was trying to put his fears at ease by being carefree, but on the inside she was just as nervous.

They were both alerted to the sound of the door opening before the man in the red trench-coat entered the room. They could see splotches of blood staining his coat, which gave them at least an idea of what he'd been doing. As soon as he entered fully into the room he turned his gaze to them before he smiled.

"I see I'm the last one back. Guess that means you two are done?" he questioned, receiving nods from both of them. Earlier they had been given the objective of killing some of Verrocchio's men. He hadn't said why, but they also hadn't asked. "Mind letting me know where the bodies are? I need to go get them."

Gretel told him the location of Verrochio's safe house without complaint. "Why do you need their bodies mister?" she asked confused. He hadn't told them he would be retrieving the bodies earlier.

Naruto shrugged. "It's for the second part to how were going to send him a message. You remember earlier when I told you the first part of the plan right?" receiving a nod he continued. "Well as I said earlier, for the first part we just needed to kill some of his men so we could send a message. Though it's not as straight forward as that. The message were sending isn't as simple as killing his men, we need to make it personal. Let him know that we're gunning for _his_ life. And to do that we need these bodies."

The twins just nodded, not exactly sure what he meant but getting the general concept.

"So I'll take care of the rest from here, you two should get cleaned up and changed while I'm gone." they nodded as he got up to leave the room once more, but before he could he heard Gretel call him.

"Mister... when you get back we had something we wanted to ask you." Naruto was confused be the lack of confidence in her voice but chose not to question it.

"Sure thing kiddo." with that he left the room.

* * *

**Chapter End!**

**Alright so I've lately just been in the mood two write for this story, which is why there's no sixth month long wait for the next chapter.**

**Anyways, can someone tell me if the various Jutsu are supposed to be capitalized or not? Same with the Sharingan. I could figure it out, and I've never really written before I started reading fanfiction so I don't know the rules to actual writing.**

**8/29/2015 - I went back and capitalized the Jutsu, so I'm hoping its correct now.**

**(1)* since its obvious who's Sharingan this is( the techniques he's used with it should give it away.), I'd appreciate if someone could get me a better description to replace the one I'm using! Please?**

**As always, please point out any flaws that are in the chapter/story! I have no problem with going back and changing them!**

**Please leave a review!**

**SaucyHandles out!**


	7. Morning Sun

**Authors note: So, so, so, sorry about the long wait for this chapter but I've tried to explain in the end note. Anyways, this chapter was extremely fun to write, so I hope you all like it!**

* * *

**Ghosts of the Past**

**-Chapter Seven-**

* * *

Standing in a circle was a group of men, each wearing well-fitted suits and holding various firearms, ranging from simple pistols to full blown assault rifles. In the center of the rugged group of people was the prone form of a single man, hunched on his side while holding a hand to his bleeding stomach.

A man in his mid-twenties stood off a little ways from the group of thugs watching with a snarl. He had dark-blond hair that was slicked back, a large tan trench-coat and a cigar sticking out from his mouth.

"You shouldn't have ever messed with us ya sack of shit! You could have just done as we told ya and the others and this all coulda gone over smoothly, but no, you felt the need to play hero... I don't know what to tell someone as dumb as you. You've been watching far too many movies. But now, you're going to pay the price and reap what you've sown. You killed _eight_ of my men, so now I've gotta take the time to make ya pay, and while I'd like to sit here and make you suffer, that's no longer an option. But I know now what it is you were trying to protect," a devious smile appeared on the blond man's face. "bring her out!"

The man on the ground looked on in horror as a few men drug a bound little girl out from behind a nearby wall. The little girl kicked around and tried to free herself but to no use, the men were simply too large to break free from. The man on the ground snarled veraciously, exposing a few teeth, one of which seemed to be a fang. The low growls that escaped from the man's mouth alongside his now snarling face made the man look like a rabid animal. That was furthered when the little girl attempted to scream, but the sound was severely muffled by a rag that had been stuffed in her mouth.

"Since we can't stay here much long in order to torture you, I figured I'd let the last thing you ever see be this little bitch's crying face. That should be enough to make up for the shit that you've caused; knowing that I'm going to turn this little bitch into a pedo's fuck-toy and make some money off her before we feed her to the damn pigs! It's fitting since you did all this for her from the looks of things," the man spat on the ground in apparent disgust. "The things a father will do to keep his daughter safe. Well, this will have to do for now. Finish him and let's get the fuck outta here already!" the man barked out at the others before he grabbed the girl from the men that held her and began to drag her away.

The man on the ground screamed a mighty roar at the sight, but the sound was immediately snuffed out by the booming cracks of multiple gunshots. The last noise that would be heard in the area for awhile was the last shout of a little girl's muffled screams before the area was rendered silent.

* * *

Tossing himself violently into a sitting position, Naruto looked around panicked for a moment as sweat beaded down from his forehead; his breathing was rapid as he frantically gazed around his surroundings. After a terrifying moment of confusion, his awareness finally kicked in and allowed him to process where he was. He was currently sitting in one of the twin-sized beds of the hotel room he'd been staying in with the twins for the past few days. Upon further examination he noticed that his blankets had been tossed onto the floor, and his pillow was wedged between the bed and the wall, a sign he'd likely been tossing and turning in his bed.

It took a moment but Naruto finally managed to calm his rapid and shaky breathing back down to a normal pace. Sitting still for a moment he let out a tired sigh; this wasn't the first time he'd been plagued by that terrible nightmare. No, it had been appearing sporadically in his sleep ever since his daughter had been taken from him. Letting out a depressed sigh, Naruto corrected himself; it wasn't entirely a nightmare, since it was more akin to a bad retelling of a horrible memory. Deciding it best not to dwell on it he banished the thoughts from the forefront of his mind.

Gazing once more around the room Naruto let his now calm mind examine it in a less paranoid manner. It had only been about a day and a half since he'd met the twins, and as such put them into their second day together. Speaking of said twins, they were currently snuggled together in an embrace, underneath the covers of the other bed in the room, sleeping. Apparently while he had been having his nightmare, he at least hadn't been screaming in his sleep, which would've likely resulted in him waking the duo up.

Other than the twins, the room had become a little bit more homely, with personal belongings scattered across the small room, and the twin's leftover food sitting on the table. Draped across the back of one of the chairs at said table was Naruto's red trench-coat; having been removed the night prior as he had prepared himself for bed, with a black leather coat and dress being draped across the opposite chair; the twins like him having removed the bulky clothing just before they'd gone to sleep.

Shaking his head briefly to rid himself of the last vestiges of the uneasy feelings he had gained from his nightmare, Naruto picked himself out of bed. Standing up he threw his arms high above his head in a much needed stretch, as a content sigh escaped from his mouth. His face soon contorted in a look of minor disgust as the movement brought to his attention the unpleasant feeling of having the tight black T-shirt he wore clinging uncomfortably to his skin with the dampness of sweat.

Naruto let out a sigh, he needed to take a shower.

Leaning down he tossed the floored blanket back to its rightful place on his bed before making his way to the nearby window. The curtain was typically kept closed as to allow their room a bit of privacy from any unwanted prying eyes, though this brought about the very problem that Naruto had to deal with now; it kept any light from entering the room and allowing him to get a better gauge as to the time of day. It wasn't much more than an inconvenience really, but it definitely brought to his attention that he'd need to get a clock for their room, seeing as the motel was incredibly cheap and had no such item located anywhere in the room.

Pulling the curtain back less than an inch Naruto used the space to take a peak around outside, making sure it was safe to pull it back further. Gazing around he took note that the alley below was completely devoid of people, as were the nearby roofs. Feeling that there would be no danger in doing so, Naruto pulled the curtain back enough to let the little light there was into the room. The sun still had yet to make its way over the horizon, and as such the sky was nothing more than a dark blue that slowly faded its way across the sky into a lighter blue in the direction the sun would soon rise from.

Naruto mentally calculated there to be around half an hour before the sun peaked it's head over the horizon and began to let more light into the room. As it were now, the half parted curtains only let in the barest of light, which cast the room in a soft blue hue. Once the sun came up it would hopefully wake the twins up peacefully so he wouldn't have to do it himself. Looking to them it was clear they were comfortable as they were, and he didn't particularly want to impede on that. After all, how long had they possibly gone without the ability to sleep comfortably in a place that they felt was safe?

Thinking about the duo brought the conversation they had held the night prior to the forefront of his mind.

* * *

He had just gotten back from dealing with the bodies their group had created when Gretel had reminded him that they both still wanted to talk to him. He had quickly become confused when upon turning his attention to them so he could hear them out, the duo had quickly shrunk in on themselves, as neither seemed prepared to speak. An awkward moment passed quickly before finally Gretel, with eyes shut tight and both fists clenched, had blurted out a single sentence that sent Naruto's mind racing to register what he had heard.

"We want you to be our father!"

His mind, refined through the wisdom he'd gained over time, had already planned how the situation could go in a number of interesting ways, but he still hadn't been prepared for those words. Him... be their father? He couldn't imagine how bad things must have truly been for the duo to want a sorry excuse of a person like himself to be their _father_ of all things. In a way though, it sort of made sense. From what he'd been able to put together, it seemed that the last dream they ever had was to have a family; or at least that's what he assumed since they stated at one time that they'd been orphans just prior to their lives taking a terrible turn, and as an orphan himself he could understand just how deep a sentiment such as having a family meant to a child in their a position.

Well, that explained why they'd desire such a thing, but even so... What the hell was he supposed to say? He was here in the first place looking for his daughter of all things. He'd failed as a parent once before already, did he even deserve to try again?

Awww shit...

Looking at the duo's faces Naruto could see the anxiety in them, regardless of how much they tried to hide it. Well, whether he was suited to it or not, there was no way he was going to outright say no and hurt the pair anymore than they already had been, it just wasn't something he could bring himself to do. Besides, he didn't exactly know how they'd take being rejected, _these_ particular two might actually try to kill him. Though, he wasn't just going to roll over and do it out of the softness of his now calloused heart. No, if they wanted to be his children they needed to stop fearing what he thought, and needed to start opening up.

"And you agree with your sister here?" Naruto questioned the young boy that had remained silent so far. It was odd, when they first met, Hansel seemed to be the one that was the more secure of the two; the one that was brave enough to stand up to him with an actual snarl. Well, maybe that was all just for show then. After all, he hadn't been in a situation not suited in his favor, and his sister had been crying while the two of them were bound... Yeah, so maybe just a good actor. To his credit the boy almost immediate fought away the fears and nodded right away, a small, 'yes' accompanying the motion.

"Then right now, tell me what your biggest, deepest, darkest fear in the entire world is." Naruto stated, all trace of anything but raw seriousness disappearing from his face. The twins seemed completely thrown by the statement, clearly not understanding what that had to do with their darkest fears, but then looks of thought crossed there faces. Without needed to be encouraged Hansel spoke up, surprising Naruto as he'd assumed that once again Gretel would prove to be the more secure of the two.

"Lo-losing sora mea..." the boy said with his head turned to the floor. This apparently surprised Gretel as she quickly looked over to him, a warm pink dusting her cheeks. Naruto narrowed his eyes to make himself seem more intimidating.

"And you, Gretel?" the girl turned away from her brother before looking at up at him, face still alight with a blush. It was both cute and odd. Here was a tiny blood-thirty assassin that could strike fear into a grown man's heart, and she was sitting here blushing from a simple statement from her brother. The girl's face contorted from its look of embarrassment into a look of uneasiness.

"For me... I... I don't want to ever lose fratele meu." once the words had come from her mouth she seemed to gain a boost of confidence, as she turned and smiled at her brother. It made him curious, hadn't they ever expressed their care towards each other before now? That thought brought the image of the duo back when they'd first met to his mind; they'd been talking about immortality back then. He had to wonder if they actually believed that, or if that too was just for show. He supposed nothing short of one of them being mortally wounded would reveal the answer to anyone they didn't trust.

Naruto looked up, having let his gaze drift to the floor while he'd been pondering their situation further, only to see that Hansel and Gretel were both now holding hands; fingers locked between fingers. If anything, it was rather adorable. Leave it to them to turn a personal question about their fears into an odd way to admit their love for each other. These two were definitely not normal.

"Just what am I going to do with you two?" Naruto spoke with a sigh as he rubbed the back of his neck, a second later a thought occurred to him. "Well, I guess first of all I'm going to start with a promise. Now the thing the two of you both need to know about me is that, no matter how much I may change, there's one thing I've vowed _never_ to let change. That being that I, Uzumaki Naruto, will _never_ go back on a promise, okay? If I say those words to you you better believe it!" a large smile adorned his face now. Things were definitely starting to feel a lot better since he'd met these two, like he wasn't as lonely as he'd been recently. It felt good.

The smile grew to become one of his foxy-grins, exposing a single canine, when he seen the look of shock the pair in front of him sported now.

"Does... does that mean... you'll be our father?" Gretel choked out, her eyes now wide open. Hansel didn't seem to be doing much better in terms of keeping the surprise and happiness from his face. A minor chuckle left Naruto's lips.

"Yeah, I suppose it does," Naruto spoke out with a smile.

It had been a long day filled with quite a bit progress being made towards his-now-their goal, but what happened next was what would forever be remembered by him whenever he thought back to it.

A tear filled Gretel quickly latched herself around his waist in an incredibly tight hug, and stayed their with her face pushed against the lower cloth the thick coat he wore. A second later Hansel seemed to crack as a few tears fell from his eyes as well. He'd clearly been trying to be strong, but that was soon forgotten as only a second later he threw himself towards Naruto, wrapping one small arm around his waist as well before throwing the other to encompass his sibling too.

Naruto leaned down slightly before he wrapped his long arms around the two of them and just let them cry it all out. After all...

This was likely the first time they'd ever been comforted by a parent...

* * *

A warm look crossed Naruto's face as he continued to look at the sleeping twins cuddled on their bed. He was a father again... Definitely not what he'd been expecting to happen when he'd first come to Roanapur, but ultimately he was happy about it. Now there was only one thing left to do. Well, two things actually...

Kill Verrocchio, and finally get some closure about the rest of his family. Either his daughter was alive and he'd find her, or she was dead and he'd spend as long as it took hunting the Sicilian mafia into extinction. This time with his new daughters.

With that a content Naruto made his way to the bathroom and closed the door. The sounds of a shower running were all that would be heard for the next hour as the sun gently rose and brushed against a sleeping Hansel and Gretel's faces; a clear blue sky would be seen by all that looked outside that day, a nice reprieve from the constant rain that had sat on the city for over a week.

It was going to be a good day.

* * *

**Chapter Seven End!**

**Going to end it here, hope it's long enough!**

**Okay, so I had half of this chapter finished almost immediately after if uploaded the last chapter... And then I ran straight into a roadblock. But about two days ago I finally found a way to continue with the story and had a lot of fun busting out the rest of this chapter. Sorry for once again making anyone that's managed to follow the story up to hear wait so long!**

**Anyways, please follow, favorite, and leave a review! Reviews especially are appreciated and I do read every single one! And whenever I get a new review I get so pumped up and excited I wind up jumping into whatever chapter I'm currently writing and getting out a few more paragraphs, even when I have severe writers block! So yeah, leave a review and let me know what you liked or dislike, and errors I've made, things that might make it better, or what have you!**

**-SaucyHandles**


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